tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398328582340048352024-03-16T12:09:19.330+11:00Kelvin Nicholson's AbodeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-22213998384857424272021-04-25T10:19:00.004+10:002021-04-25T10:21:01.041+10:00Post Backpacking Trip Clean-UpI have the privilege of being able to afford all those random little backpacking items, and while I don't baby my gear, I do try to take care of it. Especially things that keep me safe. Here's what I do after every trip with a few of the items.<div><br /></div><div>I have what are probably the two most popular water filters on the market: the <a href="https://www.katadyn.com/us/us/14946-8019639-katadyn-befree-0.6L_usa" target="_blank">Katadyn BeFree</a> and <a href="https://sawyer.com/products/sawyer-squeeze-filter/" target="_blank">Sawyer Squeeze</a>. The point of this article isn't about comparing filters, but I recommend both: I use the BeFree for solo day hikes / fastpacking or if water is plentiful, and the Squeeze in pretty much every other situation (e.g. if I need to filter for other people). If buying now then I would be super keen to try out the <a href="https://www.platy.com/ie/filtration/quickdraw-microfilter/11458.html" target="_blank">Platypus QuickDraw</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>This previous weekend I came back from a quick overnight with some people and kids, so decided to take photos of the clean-up process.</div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Sawyer Squeeze</h4><div>I prefer doing a backflush with the coupling unit vs. the syringe.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HUNSGDaMhww/YISwpOm2o4I/AAAAAAABfz0/27I1L5Q9z4grPpY2UZ1_zmom6RcD_56OgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0451.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HUNSGDaMhww/YISwpOm2o4I/AAAAAAABfz0/27I1L5Q9z4grPpY2UZ1_zmom6RcD_56OgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0451.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Get supplies ready. Bleach, spare Sawyer bag, and blue coupling thing.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kf4OppHuNJA/YISwooY2xRI/AAAAAAABfzs/gj-8y3pwin0fWSM4X5_DlmHDiqOf-rhXQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0452.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kf4OppHuNJA/YISwooY2xRI/AAAAAAABfzs/gj-8y3pwin0fWSM4X5_DlmHDiqOf-rhXQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0452.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fill bag with water, add one cupful of bleach.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0eFFumAassQ/YISwothbsHI/AAAAAAABfzw/INZaQ-lIBGMcKgm_mV5J5r16sIgkEbNqACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0453.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0eFFumAassQ/YISwothbsHI/AAAAAAABfzw/INZaQ-lIBGMcKgm_mV5J5r16sIgkEbNqACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0453.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Put on blue coupling thing, but only about 1/2 way</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zRcYWy73k_Y/YISw02hHQdI/AAAAAAABfz4/U92stgHkdvoYLvoiEFxEQ7B5ZXnkshnzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0454.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zRcYWy73k_Y/YISw02hHQdI/AAAAAAABfz4/U92stgHkdvoYLvoiEFxEQ7B5ZXnkshnzwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0454.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Put Squeeze on and now make it tight.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pXqLiqPtso8/YISw03EJ05I/AAAAAAABfz8/OLoRFwjhEocEeK3T8UGN6BsGYjVkQk-8gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0456.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pXqLiqPtso8/YISw03EJ05I/AAAAAAABfz8/OLoRFwjhEocEeK3T8UGN6BsGYjVkQk-8gCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0456.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Backflush. I don't do it like this, and use two hands instead, but had to take a photo.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GDjf8sWW2Yk/YISxB7mAiGI/AAAAAAABf0M/M4d0TJpD5Mgyu4AsNgwCo9UVg1CTIHdKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0459.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GDjf8sWW2Yk/YISxB7mAiGI/AAAAAAABf0M/M4d0TJpD5Mgyu4AsNgwCo9UVg1CTIHdKgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0459.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Put cap back on and pour a little of the water in the filter. Let sit for a few hours.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">CNOC Bladder</h4><div>I use this as a dirty bag if needing to filter a lot of water (e.g. group trip).</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M9sWKwwE2QE/YISxBDN8VjI/AAAAAAABf0I/3JPrxH-R6IQbZBUpnIBSLahsS68eggNjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0460.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M9sWKwwE2QE/YISxBDN8VjI/AAAAAAABf0I/3JPrxH-R6IQbZBUpnIBSLahsS68eggNjwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0460.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fill bladder with water and a capful of bleach.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8hGXVZhVO5o/YISxCxPteRI/AAAAAAABf0Q/ldkgzgxNiws2pPVGhNZsRzZcOXdBEywuACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0461.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8hGXVZhVO5o/YISxCxPteRI/AAAAAAABf0Q/ldkgzgxNiws2pPVGhNZsRzZcOXdBEywuACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0461.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Put on counter and let sit for a few hours. I then put a small cup in the opening and let stand dry.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tj_XMYcAvbI/YISxJ6yVC3I/AAAAAAABf0Y/FQcrJeOyRoA6dVvA8lkBB2HNTFihQlN8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0462.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tj_XMYcAvbI/YISxJ6yVC3I/AAAAAAABf0Y/FQcrJeOyRoA6dVvA8lkBB2HNTFihQlN8ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0462.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">20 year old Platypus bladders stay in the freezer. Mainly used for running if I don't take my BeFree.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><h4 style="text-align: left;">Gas Canister</h4><div>I use my kitchen scale to weigh and then write down how much gas is left. This one started at 203g, and after a few overnights is 110g. Commonly these canisters weight 95g - 100g when empty, so I know I've got 1-2 burns remaining.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XOWdVCoeTdY/YISxLBKK1UI/AAAAAAABf0c/S5masDxjqFIdppiySQPpH4YRdjqzhDuxACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0463.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XOWdVCoeTdY/YISxLBKK1UI/AAAAAAABf0c/S5masDxjqFIdppiySQPpH4YRdjqzhDuxACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0463.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weight on the side (~200g gross weight, 95-100g empty weight)</td></tr></tbody></table><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><div>That's it. When done these all go in my "every trip" basket (to be fair, I don't take a stove quite often), and now I know I don't get caught out with a clogged filter or run out of fuel and drink cold coffee.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-15323181871476082512021-01-03T08:22:00.008+11:002021-01-03T16:52:07.526+11:00Katoomba to Mittagong (131km)<p><span data-offset-key="fndil-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Where:</span><span data-offset-key="fndil-0-1"> Katoomba to Mittagong (via Hill Top for reasons below)</span></p><div data-reddit-rtjson="{"entityMap":{"0":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://www.strava.com/activities/4536566086"}},"1":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://imgur.com/a/Q6Fl4fR"}},"2":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://www.strava.com/activities/4536592392"}},"3":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://imgur.com/a/rvIcBkX"}},"4":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://www.strava.com/activities/4536901043"}},"5":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://imgur.com/a/L2Sf7UJ"}},"6":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://www.strava.com/activities/4536954800"}},"7":{"type":"LINK","mutability":"MUTABLE","data":{"url":"https://imgur.com/a/Ul2yLJ7"}}},"blocks":[{"key":"7lopb","text":"Where: Katoomba to Mittagong (via Hill Top for reasons below)","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":6,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"8om41","text":"When: 2020/12/27 18:00 to 2020/12/30 morning","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":5,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"u55p","text":"Distance: 131km, with maybe 30 km of buckwhacking (details below).","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":9,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"d8tso","text":"Conditions: Day 2 was pretty weird, as it started quite hot, probably around 27C, and then it just opened up and poured. Forecasted to unload 20mm, and I think that felt about right.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":11,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"c0ac0","text":"Useful Pre-Trip Information or Overview: I found a few GPX tracks and added a several backup tracks in Gaia GPS, but opted to follow the boring “quicker” route. I think the GPX I used was not one that had been recorded, but just one that had been created. This was one of the planning mishaps for my adventure: I overestimated possible pace. The GPX had 5km/hr average. I read previous trip reviews of people saying they could jog the track. It quickly became apparent there was no way anybody would be able to do parts of the track that quickly, so either I went a different way, the track got more difficult, or I haven’t mastered bushwhacking.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":40,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"s27e","text":"A few other prerequisites: I checked that the parks I needed to cross weren’t closed, checked the Cox’s River water gauge at Kelpie Point (0.29m), as well as potential water sources. The most challenging water situation would be on Scotts Main Range, and sure enough, I had to use the water pits, which were pretty dirty. David Noble’s site quoted the walk in the Nattai Valley as “mostly this is easy walking on the riverflats”… more on that later.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"ao2p0","text":"My goal was to do it in about 2 1/2 days, but with a backup plan to stay one more night, and/or bail via Hill Top.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"bdnio","text":"The Report: I will try to be concise, but include information if anybody else wishes to do this hike. Considering I think some of the parks only opened quite recently, it doesn't look like anybody has done this track in quite some time. The conditions I encountered were vastly different from the trip reports I have read previously.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":11,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"47lq","text":"Day 0 (21km)","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":12,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"2brp","text":"At 17:30 I got off the train and took a cab to Narrowneck Carpark & Gate ($20), and started that long boring walk along Narrowneck. Tarros Ladder has some metal holds, so is pretty easy if you have a light pack and have done some rock climbing, but probably need to be careful if you have a heavy pack. Then over Tarros Ladder Medlow Gap Walking Track, which is now pretty overgrown, and I think next time I would just continue taking the road, but maybe that’s because I was night hiking. Finally, Medlow gap down through White Dog Ridge Firetrail to Kelpie Point Trail, then camped just before Cox’s River.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"ep1sj","text":"Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/4536566086","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":44,"key":0}],"data":{}},{"key":"82vh8","text":"Photos: https://imgur.com/a/Q6Fl4fR","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":27,"key":1}],"data":{}},{"key":"8j9ar","text":"","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"8nf19","text":"Day 1 (42km)","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":12,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"59duq","text":"The day started off on the wrong foot, as I decided to walk the Cox’s River before heading up to Mount Cookem. I contemplate in hindsight if I should have gone back up Kelpie Point Trail and come down and crossed Cox’s River a bit downstream, but the walk along the river only took 40 minutes. The problem is that this type of bushwhacking - waist height to above my head - is pretty draining. Additionally, I’m not certain if I could have crossed downstream after the Cox merged with the Kowmung River, as when I tried, the water was quickly above my waist. Eventually, I first crossed the Cox then crossed the Kowmung, then started up to Mount Cookem. I think I came up the the wrong hill, as I had to do a few pretty gnarly rock climbs. Eventually I popped out and hit Scotts Main Range.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"a8l6m","text":"Then a long long fireroad walk. The water wells had water, but they quickly clogged my BeFree. Overall just hot and sort of boring, but the most annoying thing was these big flies that would bite me whenever I stopped. They even managed to bite though my clothing.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"dr1j","text":"I started to just wish for something different, and then a downpour started. Probably 3-4 hours of rain, and everything started flooding. No longer was it a problem finding water, as there were now streams forming in the road. The slightly scary part was that there was lightning hitting pretty close, which I didn’t like.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"a65fo","text":"Eventually I managed to come down through Byrnes Gap, and camped between there and Yerranderie, which was my goal for the day. I probably could have gone further, but the rain was starting to get tiring, and I had a big blister forming (more details in the gear review below).","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"rg73","text":"Remember to look out for dead branches before camping, especially after all the fires.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"9dvb8","text":"9hr 19min moving time, but 11hr elapsed time, and at 13:11/km pace (inc the bushwhack and hike up to Cookem).","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"2t6ij","text":"Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/4536592392","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":44,"key":2}],"data":{}},{"key":"a6lck","text":"Photos: https://imgur.com/a/rvIcBkX","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":27,"key":3}],"data":{}},{"key":"35tbh","text":"","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"2vml5","text":"Day 2 (47km)","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":12,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"d9jeh","text":"And here is where things start to really deviate from previous trip reports. The walk from Yerranderie to Wollondilly River was as per spec, except for needing to continue down Sheepwalk Track instead of my planned Roses Track, as it was closed to walkers. My heart sunk a bit when reaching Murrphys Crossing and seeing how big the river was - I was pretty certain there was going to be a need to swim across it, and it was flowing quickly. I sent a message on my inReach, and walked downstream to see if there were any branches and logs that I could get trapped in if I did get swept off my feet. I then started across, and luckily the water never went above my waist. There was good footing the entire way. Looking up the river was beautiful.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"8hep4","text":"Some more fireroad later and a sign pointed in to the bush reading “Mount Beloon”. There was a faint trail, and a pretty easy initial “off track” experience, at least compared to bashing bush that’s as tall as I am. Soon the waist height bushes returned, and this time on the steep hill. At some point the track intersects the cliffs around Mount Beloon, and I thought “faaaaa I could maybe climb this, but in the rain this is going to be sketchy”. Keep looking around and eventually there will be an easier section that requires NO CLIMBING.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"45ii2","text":"Coming down the other side I was excited to be going downhill, but the bush was now quite thick. Soon it dipped in to a dried up creek, which was a little faster to walk through. Continue down the gully, but be ready for a lot of scrambling. I’m not certain if the gully has always been like this, but I think it might have had a few landslides last year: trees and boulders were everywhere. It took about 90 minutes to get to the Nattai River.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"23kq3","text":"One source stated in 2015 that “it was really interesting to see the wheels of time grinding down on the Nattai ‘Road’. Once upon a time it would have been used by 4WD, but now it is completely overgrown and impassable to anything and everyone who isn’t hiking.” Well, I couldn’t even find the road, despite looking, and I had offline maps and GPS. Looking down the Nattai, with no track or easy walking ahead, it was at this point that I knew I likely wouldn’t make it back as per plan.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"jloq","text":"I reached for my inReach and sent the preset “All is well, but behind schedule”.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"1kpu4","text":"Previous reports seem to indicate that the river bed is easy to walk along, but it might be necessary to cross the river a few times. Well, let me tell you, there were usually only two options: bash some very thick bush, or just walk up above-knee deep water. And to make matters worse, a lot of the sand was very damp, so I frequently would take a step and posthole knee deep in the sand. This postholing would sometimes go on for over 50 metres, and was very slow going.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"fj26n","text":"The sun set and I was now hiking by headlamp, but with absolutely no suitable campsites visible, I was getting a little worried. Finally a small patch appeared, and I pulled out my gear and went to bed.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"60kvf","text":"11hr 41min of moving time, but 14hr 55min elapsed time","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"4poqd","text":"Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/4536901043","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":44,"key":4}],"data":{}},{"key":"32fgg","text":"Photos: https://imgur.com/a/L2Sf7UJ","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":27,"key":5}],"data":{}},{"key":"1q5b0","text":"","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"epman","text":"Day 3 (21km)","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":12,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"8c49g","text":"By 6am I was already packed and continuing down the Nattai, yet slowness persisted - maybe 18:00/km. Troys Creek Track was supposed to come out via Troys Creek, but I couldn’t find any sign of a track. Next I came across Emmetts Flat and started up the creek, but there was no evidence of human activity. And then I saw a cairn. Just two stones, but hard to miss. My spirits have never been lifted so much.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"44lg","text":"I found Starlights Trail, and was elated. I bounded up to Point Hill where I had the first mobile phone receptions since leaving Narrowneck, and out to Wattle Ridge. By now it was about 9:30am. The next challenge was how to get to Mittagong Station. I checked Uber (reported about $50), but no cars available. Then I checked 13cabs, but outside coverage. Because I arrived in the morning everybody in the carpark was coming in to the park, and not going out. I started to walk. I ended up walking almost the entire way to Hill Top, and not a single car passed me. Then one white SUV came, I tried to get a ride, but they carried on. Fair enough. A second car came, and they slowed down and picked me up! “Yea, I can drop you off at Mittagong, I’m going that way”. Thank you Jason - lifesaver!","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"bvc26","text":"Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/4536954800","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":44,"key":6}],"data":{}},{"key":"a56ig","text":"Photos: https://imgur.com/a/Ul2yLJ7","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[{"offset":8,"length":27,"key":7}],"data":{}},{"key":"e86kj","text":"Gear Notes: I didn’t do a lighterpack, but everything I had was in an 18L running vest. Basically just a sleeping bag, pad, shelter, food, and rain jacket. It was probably close to SUL, but I knew the weather was going to likely turn wicked and I was going to be in the middle of nowhere; I didn’t want to go stupid light.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":11,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"3vdfc","text":"Gear Experiments: There were two pieces of gear I wished to test on this adventure. The first was a Sunday Afternoons hat, as I figured the ridge walking in the sun wouldn’t be enjoyable with just a trucker hat. This was the right call. It worked great. The next test was a pair of white running tights. I’m trying better to use clothing as sun protection, and the tights worked well. I quickly started to wear just the tights, and they breathed fairly well, and had no chafing. They also proved decent protection from bushes. In fact, the only cuts I got where between my socks and the tights; my shins got quite torn up. No sunburns. They weren’t white when I finished.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":17,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"dbdcu","text":"Gear That Didn’t Work Well: I had several gear malfunctions. The first was my Altra Lone Peak shoes, as I started to get a pretty big blister on my right foot. I thought this was because the shoe was a little too loose, so I tightened it right up. Then I had the skin rub off on the top of my foot. A little leukotape and that problem was solved, but the blister persisted. I rarely got blisters in my Lone Peaks, but had been getting them in the same place for some reason recently, so I pre-taped my foot before heading out. Yes, that’s right, I was getting a blister under tape. Suddenly I realised what was causing the blister: the insole was sliding backwards, which was then putting pressure on my heel. I simply removed the insole, and no more rubbing! Then my right shoe developed a massive hole, which is maybe to be expected, as they have close to (at least) 700km. Finally, I developed life-ending holes in both my Drymax and Injinji socks; the heel of one, the toes of the other. (And I keep my toenails extremely filed down, as per “Fixing Your Feet”).","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":26,"style":"BOLD"},{"offset":570,"length":5,"style":"ITALIC"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"c3ge2","text":"What would I do differently next time? I would like to avoid Scotts Main Range, and somehow cut up on a parallel track on the other side of the Kowmung River. And then obviously figure out how to get down the Nattai a bit more easily. Alternatively, if I could get my fitness up, and the weather would allow me to go a little bit lighter, I would enjoy being able to run more of the roads. Because of the forecasted weather I had to carry a little bit too much stuff, and the blister was pretty big, or maybe these are the excuses I was telling myself.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[{"offset":0,"length":38,"style":"BOLD"}],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}},{"key":"8gdnn","text":"Please don't hesitate reaching out if you wish to do this track and have any questions. This track could be really fun with a group of people without any hard deadlines.","type":"unstyled","inlineStyleRanges":[],"entityRanges":[],"data":{}}]}"><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="a2aed-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="a2aed-0-0"><span data-offset-key="a2aed-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">When:</span><span data-offset-key="a2aed-0-1"> 2020/12/27 18:00 to 2020/12/30 morning</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="6o966-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6o966-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6o966-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6o966-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6o966-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Distance:</span><span data-offset-key="6o966-0-1"> 131km, with maybe 30 km of buckwhacking (details below).</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="96dcu-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="96dcu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="96dcu-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="96dcu-0-0"><span data-offset-key="96dcu-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Conditions:</span><span data-offset-key="96dcu-0-1"> Day 2 was pretty weird, as it started quite hot, probably around 27C, and then it just opened up and poured. Forecasted to unload 20mm, and I think that felt about right.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="5tvqb-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5tvqb-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5tvqb-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5tvqb-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5tvqb-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Useful Pre-Trip Information or Overview:</span><span data-offset-key="5tvqb-0-1"> I found a few GPX tracks and added a several backup tracks in Gaia GPS, but opted to follow the boring “quicker” route. I think the GPX I used was not one that had been recorded, but just one that had been created. This was one of the planning mishaps for my adventure: I overestimated possible pace. The GPX had 5km/hr average. I read previous trip reviews of people saying they could jog the track. It quickly became apparent there was no way anybody would be able to do parts of the track that quickly, so either I went a different way, the track got more difficult, or I haven’t mastered bushwhacking.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="cvgqg-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cvgqg-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cvgqg-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cvgqg-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cvgqg-0-0">A few other prerequisites: I checked that the parks I needed to cross weren’t closed, checked the Cox’s River water gauge at Kelpie Point (0.29m), as well as potential water sources. The most challenging water situation would be on Scotts Main Range, and sure enough, I had to use the water pits, which were pretty dirty. David Noble’s site quoted the walk in the Nattai Valley as “mostly this is easy walking on the riverflats”… more on that later.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="93dg5-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="93dg5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="93dg5-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="93dg5-0-0"><span data-offset-key="93dg5-0-0">My goal was to do it in about 2 1/2 days, but with a backup plan to stay one more night, and/or bail via Hill Top.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="69b6s-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="69b6s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="69b6s-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="69b6s-0-0"><span data-offset-key="69b6s-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">The Report:</span><span data-offset-key="69b6s-0-1"> I will try to be concise, but include information if anybody else wishes to do this hike. Considering I think some of the parks only opened quite recently, it doesn't look like anybody has done this track in quite some time. The conditions I encountered were vastly different from the trip reports I have read previously.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="2jqnt-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2jqnt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2jqnt-0-0" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2jqnt-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2jqnt-0-0" style="font-style: italic;">Day 0 (21km)</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="9j4tp-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9j4tp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9j4tp-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9j4tp-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9j4tp-0-0">At 17:30 I got off the train and took a cab to Narrowneck Carpark & Gate ($20), and started that long boring walk along Narrowneck. Tarros Ladder has some metal holds, so is pretty easy if you have a light pack and have done some rock climbing, but probably need to be careful if you have a heavy pack. Then over Tarros Ladder Medlow Gap Walking Track, which is now pretty overgrown, and I think next time I would just continue taking the road, but maybe that’s because I was night hiking. Finally, Medlow gap down through White Dog Ridge Firetrail to Kelpie Point Trail, then camped just before Cox’s River.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="7vbo9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7vbo9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7vbo9-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7vbo9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="7vbo9-0-0">Strava: </span><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://www.strava.com/activities/4536566086"><span data-offset-key="7vbo9-1-0">https://www.strava.com/activities/4536566086</span></a></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0">Photos: </span><span data-offset-key="bipo4-1-0"><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://imgur.com/a/Q6Fl4fR">https://imgur.com/a/Q6Fl4fR</a></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0"><br /></div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js"></script>
<div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0"><br /></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0"><br /></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-McqCsrJwdX4/X_DkmKGBo-I/AAAAAAABepc/7EEvbz7xfxsNSF-dam0ak3eWlCSxq2ZlQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0156.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-McqCsrJwdX4/X_DkmKGBo-I/AAAAAAABepc/7EEvbz7xfxsNSF-dam0ak3eWlCSxq2ZlQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0156.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking Fresh</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1OucX38fW9E/X_Dkm2qfd2I/AAAAAAABepg/_eYCzZkKa2YiVXGFk1veec2FJi-7VDlPACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0157.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1190" data-original-width="2048" height="373" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1OucX38fW9E/X_Dkm2qfd2I/AAAAAAABepg/_eYCzZkKa2YiVXGFk1veec2FJi-7VDlPACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h373/IMG_0157.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from Narrowneck</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IzSIhVunZTg/X_DknLsMDaI/AAAAAAABepk/wBk0zTvuA7QkKydteXIJGN3086F4vfBaACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0159.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IzSIhVunZTg/X_DknLsMDaI/AAAAAAABepk/wBk0zTvuA7QkKydteXIJGN3086F4vfBaACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0159.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More Narrowneck</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dEOMHspr068/X_DkoLM7jMI/AAAAAAABeps/Zxk_r4FduNExj4vhKm8m_pzQp-A3GzJlACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0162.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1161" data-original-width="2048" height="362" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dEOMHspr068/X_DkoLM7jMI/AAAAAAABeps/Zxk_r4FduNExj4vhKm8m_pzQp-A3GzJlACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h362/IMG_0162.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View back towards Katoomba</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fkSuazo6nWQ/X_DkqQwN-tI/AAAAAAABep4/m8kyQBjLc_kb3CQem9gjs5Isp_xAeahIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0166.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fkSuazo6nWQ/X_DkqQwN-tI/AAAAAAABep4/m8kyQBjLc_kb3CQem9gjs5Isp_xAeahIQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0166.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tarros Ladder easy peasy</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RC3P56F9r3s/X_Dkr7cqO2I/AAAAAAABeqE/-vl1rqQkjHokrQbq-Ww75FboE6XtzBxVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0168.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RC3P56F9r3s/X_Dkr7cqO2I/AAAAAAABeqE/-vl1rqQkjHokrQbq-Ww75FboE6XtzBxVgCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0168.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty easy climb</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bipo4-0-0"><br /></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="dga26-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="dga26-0-0"><span data-offset-key="dga26-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="bpbgh-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bpbgh-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bpbgh-0-0" style="font-style: italic;">Day 1 (42km)</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="3d4mm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3d4mm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3d4mm-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3d4mm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3d4mm-0-0">The day started off on the wrong foot, as I decided to walk the Cox’s River before heading up to Mount Cookem. I contemplate in hindsight if I should have gone back up Kelpie Point Trail and come down and crossed Cox’s River a bit downstream, but the walk along the river only took 40 minutes. The problem is that this type of bushwhacking - waist height to above my head - is pretty draining. Additionally, I’m not certain if I could have crossed downstream after the Cox merged with the Kowmung River, as when I tried, the water was quickly above my waist. Eventually, I first crossed the Cox then crossed the Kowmung, then started up to Mount Cookem. I think I came up the the wrong hill, as I had to do a few pretty gnarly rock climbs. Eventually I popped out and hit Scotts Main Range.</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3d4mm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3d4mm-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="1888b-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1888b-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1888b-0-0">Then a long long fireroad walk. The water wells had water, but they quickly clogged my BeFree. Overall just hot and sort of boring, but the most annoying thing was these big flies that would bite me whenever I stopped. They even managed to bite though my clothing.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="571p6-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="571p6-0-0"><span data-offset-key="571p6-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="571p6-0-0"><span data-offset-key="571p6-0-0">I started to just wish for something different, and then a downpour started. Probably 3-4 hours of rain, and everything started flooding. No longer was it a problem finding water, as there were now streams forming in the road. The slightly scary part was that there was lightning hitting pretty close, which I didn’t like.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="9h2kf-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9h2kf-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9h2kf-0-0">Eventually I managed to come down through Byrnes Gap, and camped between there and Yerranderie, which was my goal for the day. I probably could have gone further, but the rain was starting to get tiring, and I had a big blister forming (more details in the gear review below).</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="11bq9-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="11bq9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="11bq9-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="11bq9-0-0"><span data-offset-key="11bq9-0-0">Remember to look out for dead branches before camping, especially after all the fires.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="98nh8-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="98nh8-0-0"><span data-offset-key="98nh8-0-0">9hr 19min moving time, but 11hr elapsed time, and at 13:11/km pace (inc the bushwhack and hike up to Cookem).</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="1tett-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1tett-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1tett-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1tett-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1tett-0-0">Strava: </span><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://www.strava.com/activities/4536592392"><span data-offset-key="1tett-1-0">https://www.strava.com/activities/4536592392</span></a></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="22ued-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="22ued-0-0"><span data-offset-key="22ued-0-0">Photos: </span><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://imgur.com/a/rvIcBkX"><span data-offset-key="22ued-1-0">https://imgur.com/a/rvIcBkX</span></a></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="966rn-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="966rn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="966rn-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="966rn-0-0"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IOMgMHSrmU4/X_DlVMmw-GI/AAAAAAABeqg/1nzKixSibFsOJpdOQ3SSv6IQamFDfpKqwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0169.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IOMgMHSrmU4/X_DlVMmw-GI/AAAAAAABeqg/1nzKixSibFsOJpdOQ3SSv6IQamFDfpKqwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0169.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not looking quite as fresh</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f-pef_qhRVM/X_DlVZTrFOI/AAAAAAABeqk/mW2SxmA7WFAEyPOqWLODIS3SB1WM2rThwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0170.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f-pef_qhRVM/X_DlVZTrFOI/AAAAAAABeqk/mW2SxmA7WFAEyPOqWLODIS3SB1WM2rThwCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0170.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Too deep to cross, and need to climb up that mountain next</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EF3aJPREVLk/X_DlV3sCblI/AAAAAAABeqo/KuWEToGYbAU-WyeUoFcSLS3cYFpzDKPGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0171.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EF3aJPREVLk/X_DlV3sCblI/AAAAAAABeqo/KuWEToGYbAU-WyeUoFcSLS3cYFpzDKPGgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0171.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Much easier when out of the bush, but still pretty steep</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c5dfKFmZfB8/X_DlX44ok7I/AAAAAAABeqw/MfU2MTfQDm4YKXXwiifNNgD2yn_FZ-c_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0174.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c5dfKFmZfB8/X_DlX44ok7I/AAAAAAABeqw/MfU2MTfQDm4YKXXwiifNNgD2yn_FZ-c_wCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0174.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some climbing. I think I went up the wrong hill.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AeA8DJ8dLc4/X_DlYA4tsnI/AAAAAAABeq0/xOiHRx6ZD1AdV2DHTn0LaDNG8Lsvm7RBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0175.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AeA8DJ8dLc4/X_DlYA4tsnI/AAAAAAABeq0/xOiHRx6ZD1AdV2DHTn0LaDNG8Lsvm7RBgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0175.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's where I came from</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_6MKtvy0Bbc/X_Dlaa3bC3I/AAAAAAABeq4/ikm2KS04MpYAWb0ySaMR7McO1C8yUjG7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0176.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_6MKtvy0Bbc/X_Dlaa3bC3I/AAAAAAABeq4/ikm2KS04MpYAWb0ySaMR7McO1C8yUjG7wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0176.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think that green area is where I camped</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gbMBvABSgjo/X_DlcDY9wmI/AAAAAAABerI/VuizC8VdD544LNb_7npMvS3AJntuU-lYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0181.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gbMBvABSgjo/X_DlcDY9wmI/AAAAAAABerI/VuizC8VdD544LNb_7npMvS3AJntuU-lYwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0181.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At least it isn't raining</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="966rn-0-0"><span data-offset-key="966rn-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="d6u8e-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d6u8e-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d6u8e-0-0" style="font-style: italic;">Day 2 (47km)</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="2ha3a-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2ha3a-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2ha3a-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2ha3a-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2ha3a-0-0">And here is where things start to really deviate from previous trip reports. The walk from Yerranderie to Wollondilly River was as per spec, except for needing to continue down Sheepwalk Track instead of my planned Roses Track, as it was closed to walkers. My heart sunk a bit when reaching Murrphys Crossing and seeing how big the river was - I was pretty certain there was going to be a need to swim across it, and it was flowing quickly. I sent a message on my inReach, and walked downstream to see if there were any branches and logs that I could get trapped in if I did get swept off my feet. I then started across, and luckily the water never went above my waist. There was good footing the entire way. Looking up the river was beautiful.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="cb5fm-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cb5fm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cb5fm-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cb5fm-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cb5fm-0-0">Some more fireroad later and a sign pointed in to the bush reading “Mount Beloon”. There was a faint trail, and a pretty easy initial “off track” experience, at least compared to bashing bush that’s as tall as I am. Soon the waist height bushes returned, and this time on the steep hill. At some point the track intersects the cliffs around Mount Beloon, and I thought “faaaaa I could maybe climb this, but in the rain this is going to be sketchy”. Keep looking around and eventually there will be an easier section that requires NO CLIMBING.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="bmf68-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bmf68-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bmf68-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bmf68-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bmf68-0-0">Coming down the other side I was excited to be going downhill, but the bush was now quite thick. Soon it dipped in to a dried up creek, which was a little faster to walk through. Continue down the gully, but be ready for a lot of scrambling. I’m not certain if the gully has always been like this, but I think it might have had a few landslides last year: trees and boulders were everywhere. It took about 90 minutes to get to the Nattai River.</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bmf68-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bmf68-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="eg19v-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="eg19v-0-0"><span data-offset-key="eg19v-0-0">One source stated in 2015 that “it was really interesting to see the wheels of time grinding down on the Nattai ‘Road’. Once upon a time it would have been used by 4WD, but now it is completely overgrown and impassable to anything and everyone who isn’t hiking.” Well, I couldn’t even find the road, despite looking, and I had offline maps and GPS. Looking down the Nattai, with no track or easy walking ahead, it was at this point that I knew I likely wouldn’t make it back as per plan.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="50cpc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="50cpc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="50cpc-0-0">I reached for my inReach and sent the preset “All is well, but behind schedule”.</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="50cpc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="50cpc-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="3b8lf-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3b8lf-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3b8lf-0-0">Previous reports seem to indicate that the river bed is easy to walk along, but it might be necessary to cross the river a few times. Well, let me tell you, there were usually only two options: bash some very thick bush, or just walk up above-knee deep water. And to make matters worse, a lot of the sand was very damp, so I frequently would take a step and posthole knee deep in the sand. This postholing would sometimes go on for over 50 metres, and was very slow going.</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3b8lf-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3b8lf-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="6d7g0-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6d7g0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6d7g0-0-0">The sun set and I was now hiking by headlamp, but with absolutely no suitable campsites visible, I was getting a little worried. Finally a small patch appeared, and I pulled out my gear and went to bed.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="b95th-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b95th-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b95th-0-0">11hr 41min of moving time, but 14hr 55min elapsed time</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="b95th-0-0"><span data-offset-key="b95th-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="em9ag-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="em9ag-0-0"><span data-offset-key="em9ag-0-0">Strava: </span><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://www.strava.com/activities/4536901043"><span data-offset-key="em9ag-1-0">https://www.strava.com/activities/4536901043</span></a></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="40icc-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="40icc-0-0"><span data-offset-key="40icc-0-0">Photos: </span><span data-offset-key="40icc-1-0"><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://imgur.com/a/L2Sf7UJ">https://imgur.com/a/L2Sf7UJ</a></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="40icc-0-0"><br /></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="40icc-0-0"><br /></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="9n208-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9n208-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9n208-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9n208-0-0"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wY-5QyThFiY/X_DmAIc2eDI/AAAAAAABer0/mbZn-c-SR-AqiRuqmhnEbUC8_-OQlajvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0185.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wY-5QyThFiY/X_DmAIc2eDI/AAAAAAABer0/mbZn-c-SR-AqiRuqmhnEbUC8_-OQlajvwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0185.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's where I slept</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UdlrLlHGtkc/X_DmAGC3QKI/AAAAAAABerw/UmI68LqwDkEkjPWeFZ0ofeq4hf1nbWjCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0186.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UdlrLlHGtkc/X_DmAGC3QKI/AAAAAAABerw/UmI68LqwDkEkjPWeFZ0ofeq4hf1nbWjCQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0186.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That way!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctegH4CMez0/X_DmBVREZRI/AAAAAAABer4/yraRbrsdEvgEGhEjOE5YqwfzpBfqsMqHACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0188.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="2048" height="218" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctegH4CMez0/X_DmBVREZRI/AAAAAAABer4/yraRbrsdEvgEGhEjOE5YqwfzpBfqsMqHACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h218/IMG_0188.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Under maintenance</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBVtvuKHnNk/X_DmDF7TWOI/AAAAAAABesE/OApu3rN2LmoYD_QPHUxGQolQqOzZ3x9FwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0189.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBVtvuKHnNk/X_DmDF7TWOI/AAAAAAABesE/OApu3rN2LmoYD_QPHUxGQolQqOzZ3x9FwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0189.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yerranderie (Under maintenance this week)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZ827blweeA/X_DmG0ZUT8I/AAAAAAABesY/Z2_FShTG8G4Svs17S88d3pE-h48Bf6FRwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0198.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZ827blweeA/X_DmG0ZUT8I/AAAAAAABesY/Z2_FShTG8G4Svs17S88d3pE-h48Bf6FRwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0198.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nope, not going to go that way</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dkUIYLG8dIg/X_DmItBfKOI/AAAAAAABesg/C9rvmn98C7sePeZhJoNcSe6t9Xu0RboGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0201.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dkUIYLG8dIg/X_DmItBfKOI/AAAAAAABesg/C9rvmn98C7sePeZhJoNcSe6t9Xu0RboGgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0201.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spirits still high</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ff7DgzFirxw/X_DmJEE6htI/AAAAAAABeso/u3iQqqxw4JQBPbQUC7kIDCBl6n3KB0cuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ff7DgzFirxw/X_DmJEE6htI/AAAAAAABeso/u3iQqqxw4JQBPbQUC7kIDCBl6n3KB0cuwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0202.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful remote views. Lots of roos and emus</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JYqbh7ynwkE/X_DmKvwQlKI/AAAAAAABess/gf_BNHmvcsI7HdIPO3Gf2a47MwzGEdMpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0203.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JYqbh7ynwkE/X_DmKvwQlKI/AAAAAAABess/gf_BNHmvcsI7HdIPO3Gf2a47MwzGEdMpQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0203.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of my favourite stretches of road</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdYB9qBsH7M/X_DmLRs_J-I/AAAAAAABesw/o3eKQrZJV3wrpK6Bb_1olR_dMykqLp_1QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0205.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdYB9qBsH7M/X_DmLRs_J-I/AAAAAAABesw/o3eKQrZJV3wrpK6Bb_1olR_dMykqLp_1QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0205.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">May be subject to flooding. You don't say.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-56cGKKb0o8s/X_DmSAhLzQI/AAAAAAABetE/M6w2wD-b2AcbA6ovjBiQqknVWcK_RcKcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0208.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-56cGKKb0o8s/X_DmSAhLzQI/AAAAAAABetE/M6w2wD-b2AcbA6ovjBiQqknVWcK_RcKcQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0208.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Survived.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4_CpzErLLE/X_DmVa10iQI/AAAAAAABetM/Mwx8yZndtOMW95qVuES_xdoNPz7sGBsowCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0209.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4_CpzErLLE/X_DmVa10iQI/AAAAAAABetM/Mwx8yZndtOMW95qVuES_xdoNPz7sGBsowCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0209.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Easy off track</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--iwDbIkpREY/X_DmZQ2VFPI/AAAAAAABetg/nIOVT6Fooi0blWakpzzp7gyWFGrSQlgwgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0211.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--iwDbIkpREY/X_DmZQ2VFPI/AAAAAAABetg/nIOVT6Fooi0blWakpzzp7gyWFGrSQlgwgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0211.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's a problem</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbbfbtkUkLY/X_DmavMq7WI/AAAAAAABeto/sd9iCbmUKr4oZ9MZJn4HjEg0HyBaqWAPACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0212.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><br /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eR9Hx_5m70A/X_Dmb5MPjKI/AAAAAAABet0/H3hPeani2r0Qk8BpUtOPOCYR3WGiBi8VACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0213.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eR9Hx_5m70A/X_Dmb5MPjKI/AAAAAAABet0/H3hPeani2r0Qk8BpUtOPOCYR3WGiBi8VACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0213.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Made it</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoDyajfwBX0/X_DmemKZdMI/AAAAAAABet8/KvnSURrInJ88Qv5GYYwNuvgHygxyaCLCwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0215.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoDyajfwBX0/X_DmemKZdMI/AAAAAAABet8/KvnSURrInJ88Qv5GYYwNuvgHygxyaCLCwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0215.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Only took 90 minutes to get down the gully, but a lot of effort</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yYZTYQ8_FRM/X_DmfCwPYEI/AAAAAAABeuA/1b024CnWDu0pzQp8LctaUKAk7CuxbzeDwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0216.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="2048" height="218" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yYZTYQ8_FRM/X_DmfCwPYEI/AAAAAAABeuA/1b024CnWDu0pzQp8LctaUKAk7CuxbzeDwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h218/IMG_0216.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nattai river</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hjI3FjWjA6c/X_DmhB3FhRI/AAAAAAABeuE/vgS9aDmY3k4YF_4eLBT32c3ufjWqLqm7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0217.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hjI3FjWjA6c/X_DmhB3FhRI/AAAAAAABeuE/vgS9aDmY3k4YF_4eLBT32c3ufjWqLqm7gCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_0217.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bush whacking time</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span data-offset-key="9n208-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9n208-0-0"><span data-offset-key="9n208-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="62kod-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="62kod-0-0"><span data-offset-key="62kod-0-0" style="font-style: italic;">Day 3 (21km)</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="62kod-0-0"><span data-offset-key="62kod-0-0" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="8s4j4-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8s4j4-0-0"><span data-offset-key="8s4j4-0-0">By 6am I was already packed and continuing down the Nattai, yet slowness persisted - maybe 18:00/km. Troys Creek Track was supposed to come out via Troys Creek, but I couldn’t find any sign of a track. Next I came across Emmetts Flat and started up the creek, but there was no evidence of human activity. And then I saw a cairn. Just two stones, but hard to miss. My spirits have never been lifted so much.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="6mhtd-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6mhtd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6mhtd-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6mhtd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6mhtd-0-0">I found Starlights Trail, and was elated. I bounded up to Point Hill where I had the first mobile phone receptions since leaving Narrowneck, and out to Wattle Ridge. By now it was about 9:30am. The next challenge was how to get to Mittagong Station. I checked Uber (reported about $50), but no cars available. Then I checked 13cabs, but outside coverage. Because I arrived in the morning everybody in the carpark was coming in to the park, and not going out. I started to walk. I ended up walking almost the entire way to Hill Top, and not a single car passed me. Then one white SUV came, I tried to get a ride, but they carried on. Fair enough. A second car came, and they slowed down and picked me up! “Yea, I can drop you off at Mittagong, I’m going that way”. Thank you Jason - lifesaver!</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="6mhtd-0-0"><span data-offset-key="6mhtd-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="61r7l-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="61r7l-0-0"><span data-offset-key="61r7l-0-0">Strava: </span><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://www.strava.com/activities/4536954800"><span data-offset-key="61r7l-1-0">https://www.strava.com/activities/4536954800</span></a></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="cf18d-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="cf18d-0-0"><span data-offset-key="cf18d-0-0">Photos: </span><a class="_1FRfMxEAy__7c8vezYv9qP" href="https://imgur.com/a/Ul2yLJ7"><span data-offset-key="cf18d-1-0">https://imgur.com/a/Ul2yLJ7</span></a></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="3150h-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3150h-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3150h-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3150h-0-0"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aaSxbi33_lQ/X_Dm4WlcLhI/AAAAAAABeuo/TRBF4llhH6c1buGPMDobYDTt8VoRLkmfACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0218.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aaSxbi33_lQ/X_Dm4WlcLhI/AAAAAAABeuo/TRBF4llhH6c1buGPMDobYDTt8VoRLkmfACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0218.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's not a real trail - wombat tracks.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gL2IFai37iA/X_Dm4jbXntI/AAAAAAABeuw/P2vXvb0RfJM87gTSl9WQsSOGTdyN_3dnACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0219.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gL2IFai37iA/X_Dm4jbXntI/AAAAAAABeuw/P2vXvb0RfJM87gTSl9WQsSOGTdyN_3dnACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0219.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CIVILISATION!!!!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JyMpqgK-4rM/X_Dm4qEcaYI/AAAAAAABeus/Wbq-MQaLUQk79KlwjXpb5vnMUfnrQW1zQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0220.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JyMpqgK-4rM/X_Dm4qEcaYI/AAAAAAABeus/Wbq-MQaLUQk79KlwjXpb5vnMUfnrQW1zQCLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0220.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MORE CIVILISATION!!!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wo97oRXoMOE/X_Dm5dD7koI/AAAAAAABeu0/D231jXlhX1YfHU9Asxdto5XPCDiyeAjuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0221.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="987" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wo97oRXoMOE/X_Dm5dD7koI/AAAAAAABeu0/D231jXlhX1YfHU9Asxdto5XPCDiyeAjuQCLcBGAsYHQ/w308-h640/IMG_0221.jpeg" width="308" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No longer see through</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3a_xuLFR8p8/X_Dm6WnNWkI/AAAAAAABeu8/oRRIci_aQKgCcaSkw4jNHOvIQ8vhMrQZACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0226.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3a_xuLFR8p8/X_Dm6WnNWkI/AAAAAAABeu8/oRRIci_aQKgCcaSkw4jNHOvIQ8vhMrQZACLcBGAsYHQ/w480-h640/IMG_0226.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gear malfunction</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span data-offset-key="3150h-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3150h-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3150h-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3150h-0-0"><span data-offset-key="3150h-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Gear Notes:</span><span data-offset-key="3150h-0-1"> I didn’t do a lighterpack, but everything I had was in an 18L running vest. Basically just a sleeping bag, pad, shelter, food, and rain jacket. It was probably close to SUL, but I knew the weather was going to likely turn wicked and I was going to be in the middle of nowhere; I didn’t want to go stupid light.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="2rt63-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2rt63-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2rt63-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2rt63-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2rt63-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Gear Experiments:</span><span data-offset-key="2rt63-0-1"> There were two pieces of gear I wished to test on this adventure. The first was a Sunday Afternoons hat, as I figured the ridge walking in the sun wouldn’t be enjoyable with just a trucker hat. This was the right call. It worked great. The next test was a pair of white running tights. I’m trying better to use clothing as sun protection, and the tights worked well. I quickly started to wear just the tights, and they breathed fairly well, and had no chafing. They also proved decent protection from bushes. In fact, the only cuts I got where between my socks and the tights; my shins got quite torn up. No sunburns. They weren’t white when I finished.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">Gear That Didn’t Work Well</span><span data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-1">: I had several gear malfunctions. The first was my Altra Lone Peak shoes, as I started to get a pretty big blister on my right foot. I thought this was because the shoe was a little too loose, so I tightened it right up. Then I had the skin rub off on the top of my foot. A little leukotape and that problem was solved, but the blister persisted. I rarely got blisters in my Lone Peaks, but had been getting them in the same place for some reason recently, so I pre-taped my foot before heading out. Yes, that’s right, I was getting a blister </span><span data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-2" style="font-style: italic;">under</span><span data-offset-key="4qgsi-0-3"> tape. Suddenly I realised what was causing the blister: the insole was sliding backwards, which was then putting pressure on my heel. I simply removed the insole, and no more rubbing! Then my right shoe developed a massive hole, which is maybe to be expected, as they have close to (at least) 700km. Finally, I developed life-ending holes in both my Drymax and Injinji socks; the heel of one, the toes of the other. (And I keep my toenails extremely filed down, as per “Fixing Your Feet”).</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="4kufe-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4kufe-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4kufe-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4kufe-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4kufe-0-0" style="font-weight: bold;">What would I do differently next time?</span><span data-offset-key="4kufe-0-1"> I would like to avoid Scotts Main Range, and somehow cut up on a parallel track on the other side of the Kowmung River. And then obviously figure out how to get down the Nattai a bit more easily. Alternatively, if I could get my fitness up, and the weather would allow me to go a little bit lighter, I would enjoy being able to run more of the roads. Because of the forecasted weather I had to carry a little bit too much stuff, and the blister was pretty big, or maybe these are the excuses I was telling myself.</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="4kufe-0-0"><span data-offset-key="4kufe-0-1"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="e8ab1d" data-offset-key="d9n4t-0-0"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="d9n4t-0-0"><span data-offset-key="d9n4t-0-0">Please don't hesitate reaching out if you wish to do this track and have any questions. This track could be really fun with a group of people without any hard deadlines. This trip report was also cross-posted on r/UltralightAus here: https://www.reddit.com/r/UltralightAus/comments/kox0u9/trip_report_katoomba_to_mittagong_131km/</span></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-50906576936194694082020-08-17T23:50:00.004+10:002020-08-17T23:51:04.733+10:00Cox’s River return via Narrowneck<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read below for a long list of warnings. After reading some of the comments below, e.g. from Des, it seems like the track can vary significantly depending on when you do it.</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
TL;DR - in winter, after bush fires and floods, this track is a 7/6.
Left Katoomba Railway Station at about 10:00am on a Saturday in early August, so I guess technically still winter. I packed quite light and intended to do this in two days, and hopefully even get back to Sydney by 5pm. I had all the topological maps offline in Gaia GPS, and created a route based on the maps in Wildwalks; I couldn’t find a GPS trace. For the record: not a single time did I ever feel lost. It is very simple from a navigation perspective: keep Cox river to right. Walk in Breakfast Creek until it forks to Carlons Creek - go left. Now, go up. And up.
Here are my notes and where things got slow.
Six Foot Track - beautiful and very, very easy. First 11km (starting at Katoomba station) average pace was around ~10:15/km. The next 7km was a tad bit slower, maybe around 12:00/km.
<br /></span><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WfnEnQPlekM/XzqITgo7hlI/AAAAAAABdGs/3-6Cvq0A_E0BmCs3obUd8445C1jMiF4LgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4975.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WfnEnQPlekM/XzqITgo7hlI/AAAAAAABdGs/3-6Cvq0A_E0BmCs3obUd8445C1jMiF4LgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4975.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Easy Six Foot Track. Beautiful weather.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
For whatever reason I crossed the bridge. Too enticing, maybe. The river at the bridge was raging. 1km or so later tried to cross the river and almost immediately was at waist level. Flipped around and back to bridge. My first thought was “this is going to make the two river crossings later a bit interesting”.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EW7u6zyCl68/XzqIsiCZuwI/AAAAAAABdG0/AnKWhHLmgGkYR5Li2dfo9My_nNuEJsS1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4977.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EW7u6zyCl68/XzqIsiCZuwI/AAAAAAABdG0/AnKWhHLmgGkYR5Li2dfo9My_nNuEJsS1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4977.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I should have known better<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
The track disappeared almost immediately and it was bushwhacking time. What I learned later is that it should be easier to walk this section, as the river is actually like… crossable. My pace slowed to 20:00/km for a few km, then up to 14:00 for a few km. Right where the track crossed the river things got tough. I slowed to 17:00/km, then further up to almost 25:00/km. More than once I was on all fours pushing my bag through whatever track was made by wombats, or having to rock climb across the near vertical boulders a few meters above the river. The thought of crossing the river would be insane. I made it to Breakfast Creek well after dark after 7pm. Moving time was 8:27m, but I don’t remember stopping besides filtering water and crawling on the ground…</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oBn0kudt5vg/XzqI94ltchI/AAAAAAABdG8/vvBrZSZvtyQfVK223aeGJ4WKLDHcu4EIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4980.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oBn0kudt5vg/XzqI94ltchI/AAAAAAABdG8/vvBrZSZvtyQfVK223aeGJ4WKLDHcu4EIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4980.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water all the way up to slippery rocks<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XhnrqpWR7Wo/XzqJD-vWPmI/AAAAAAABdHA/9rI7uQWFFZMbQq04bUpwpQIIH1jYeZv3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4982.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XhnrqpWR7Wo/XzqJD-vWPmI/AAAAAAABdHA/9rI7uQWFFZMbQq04bUpwpQIIH1jYeZv3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4982.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yep, just head on in to the bushes<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vcr-Cjo0nnM/XzqJHO15QYI/AAAAAAABdHE/Djf2B0iSg_cJ0sGNERBft_HWbROACEkVACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4983.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vcr-Cjo0nnM/XzqJHO15QYI/AAAAAAABdHE/Djf2B0iSg_cJ0sGNERBft_HWbROACEkVACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4983.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And you end up with pricklies like this<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ckSYIiVv41g/XzqJMW7sNpI/AAAAAAABdHI/_y_vYf9mLsMm_mKfyJ_E0cjVYBnObOwQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4986.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ckSYIiVv41g/XzqJMW7sNpI/AAAAAAABdHI/_y_vYf9mLsMm_mKfyJ_E0cjVYBnObOwQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4986.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Then you can climb down this little cliff<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OXBBKqk7zS8/XzqJMeVBw8I/AAAAAAABdHM/CG7-aoaG6ZwnJDjPZMuGAH1cHLxOuGWGQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4987.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OXBBKqk7zS8/XzqJMeVBw8I/AAAAAAABdHM/CG7-aoaG6ZwnJDjPZMuGAH1cHLxOuGWGQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4987.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Or scoot across this one. <br />If you slip off, then you'll float downstream in the river...<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
The next morning I set off after the sun came up, so starting at about 6:45am. I guess because of the big floods earlier in the year the track had washed away, as probably 75% of the time I was just rock skipping. Not a big deal, and a little hard on the ankles, but waaaay easier than the day before. Eventually hit Dunphry’s campground, and thought things would be all done. Wrong.
<br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ASaMiUDyGys/XzqJ0LEaArI/AAAAAAABdHg/CIKR0HV38QU5vjvnjcU-mReLTsoMX67JACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4989.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ASaMiUDyGys/XzqJ0LEaArI/AAAAAAABdHg/CIKR0HV38QU5vjvnjcU-mReLTsoMX67JACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4989.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sometimes there was a trail, and it was awesome<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--fKsu0TWFuk/XzqJ5FJ0wGI/AAAAAAABdHk/LYuSUmDpbpwLCGA2ckUM1a99LGAFZ9EWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4990.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--fKsu0TWFuk/XzqJ5FJ0wGI/AAAAAAABdHk/LYuSUmDpbpwLCGA2ckUM1a99LGAFZ9EWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4990.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">But 75% of the time this is what the "trail" looked like<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bf6GpALi4Zc/XzqKBgOnBEI/AAAAAAABdHo/C0KwSTDEZ60JJfqc6aDWTgtmiXFB4JIDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4993.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bf6GpALi4Zc/XzqKBgOnBEI/AAAAAAABdHo/C0KwSTDEZ60JJfqc6aDWTgtmiXFB4JIDgCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4993.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Or this<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
I knew from the topo maps the climb up to Carlon’s Head would be steep, and it was. And no track. Walked too far to the left and missed the little chain going up. Eventually found it, and went up one. Then another. Then another. The old historic bolts seems to have been partially replaced by newer ones. I climbed a fair bit over the last few years, so it wasn’t too big of a deal, but know that if you’ve never done rock climbing, and you have a heavy pack, this would be terrifying. And it is high enough to potentially be deadly if you fall.
<br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KfmGMaFcvJc/XzqKjQbfFZI/AAAAAAABdH0/VWeYLZV4QfgvIJi6fWu93WW8OwumODtWACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4999.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KfmGMaFcvJc/XzqKjQbfFZI/AAAAAAABdH0/VWeYLZV4QfgvIJi6fWu93WW8OwumODtWACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_4999.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Go up here. This was the easiest of the climbs.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ooawXI95fZk/XzqK09kGrRI/AAAAAAABdH8/x-kAQIca51EDZKdq_EYrMkH4PYGYajtewCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_5004.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ooawXI95fZk/XzqK09kGrRI/AAAAAAABdH8/x-kAQIca51EDZKdq_EYrMkH4PYGYajtewCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_5004.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Progress<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
On top of the ridge, sweet! Now everything is all flat and I’m golden! Not quite. The forest fires from December took out every trace of the track. More bushwhacking, this time in burnt out forest, for two more km. Average pace was 15:30/km.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gD_0R_u0m0s/XzqK8_dBgPI/AAAAAAABdIA/18012CLsddQTGkymyJ5Uvne1LUxRm9XmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_5005.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gD_0R_u0m0s/XzqK8_dBgPI/AAAAAAABdIA/18012CLsddQTGkymyJ5Uvne1LUxRm9XmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/IMG_5005.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just walk through it. No trail. Careful to not kill any new plants growing up.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
Finally back out of the burnt woods and on to 10km of fire road. Easy. Average pace probably 10:30/km. I made it back to the train station by 13:15, with just enough time to get a coffee and catch the train home. Total distance: about 65km. Total elapsed time: ~15.5hr. Total moving time: 14hr
This track would have been much easier had the river not been overflowing, or had the creeks not flooded in Jan, or had the fires not raged in December. If you are thinking about doing this, then I would absolutely recommend a few things:
* Have as light of a pack as you can take. I wouldn’t have been able to climb Carlon’s Head with a 15kg pack
* If trying in winter, of course bring a headlamp
* Create the route and make sure to have topo maps. Again, I never felt lost
* I hike in shorts almost always. If doing this again with the same challenges, I’d probably wear pants.
* Bring a PLB or InReach, as there’s no apparent service from Six Foot all the way until you hit Dunphyrs.
This would have been beautiful if the track existed. If you want to have a look at my maps, then check out these activities on Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/3918994803
https://www.strava.com/activities/3919253337
Hike on!
</span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-72657373478155396512020-08-07T20:11:00.005+10:002020-10-20T21:14:23.787+11:00Ultralight Backpacking - Food & Electrolytes<span style="font-family: inherit;">In about 2001 or 2002 I read a book called "Beyond Backpacking - Ray Jardine's Guide to Lightweight Hiking", which set me on a path to being as light as possible. It came in very handy when I did my first section hike of the PCT, about 7 days, and I vaguely remember a total pack weight of about 25 lbs - with 4 litres of water. I was a broke college student then, so I guess clipping toothbrushes and straps really paid off. I also used a weird mesh hammock thing and I think a tarp of some kind. I have been "ultralight" ever since, even when renting equipment in Patagonia.</span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyways, the mindset has stuck 20 years later. I now am fortunate enough to have more funds to purchase better equipment, but always keen to read about recommendations on how to have a better experience and maybe even save a little weight.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCflIoVkAjQnyAwDKFmhRDDw" target="_blank">series of videos</a> was pasted on YouTube that touched on food, and they were <i>terrific</i>. I had always been pretty good about choosing which food to take. Here in Australia, my general rule of thumb was to try and get something as close to 2000kJ per 100g as possible, and then 4 or 5 stars. This insured I was getting calorie dense food, but with the videos mentioned above, I think I can now get <i>the right</i> calories.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am pasting my notes below as reference purely for myself, although I might come back around and paste suitable options from Woolies or Coles that are suitable. If you have an hour or two, and like backpacking, then I really encourage you to have a watch.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Breakfast</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mixture of simple (high GI) and complex (low GI) carbs. Simple carbs hand off to complex carbs hand off to fats.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ideal ratio for breakfast:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">65% calories from fat</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">28% from carbs, ideally split complex/simple, maybe leaning to simple</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7% from protein</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Trail Food</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Probably want something in the 5% - 15% calories from sugar range, unless eating smaller portions more often, and then 15% - 25%.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ideal ratio for the trail:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">65% calories from fat</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">28% from carbs, ideally split complex/simple, maybe leaning to complex</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7% from protein</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recovery</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Drink mix consumed within 15 minutes of finishing for the day.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ideally a carb/protein ratio between 3:1 and 4:1. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Avoid fat. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Glucose and fructose around 3:1. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Frog fuel (collagen) or hydrolysed whey isolate.</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dinner</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Between 20 - 30g of <i>high quality</i> protein, the rest of calories rich in fat, and as close to bed time as possible for thermogenic effect.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Electrolytes</b></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A few key bullet points on usage of electrolytes:</p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Three states of dehydration:</li><ul><li>hypertonic: water loss is greater in comparison to sodium loss, so serum sodium concentration increases</li><li>hypotonic: water loss is accompanied by excessive sodium loss, so serum sodium concentration decreases</li><li>isotonic: water and sodium are lost at the same rate</li></ul><li>Hypernatremia is a <i>result</i> of dehydration.</li><li>Hyponatremia is not a result of dehydration, but a result of treatment of dehydration with fluids that do not contain enough sodium.</li><li>Hiking for 8.5 hours @ 435mg Na/hr = 3600mg lost sodium</li><li>Expected losl per hour:</li><ul><li>Na 300 - 500</li><li>K 100 - 160</li><li>Mg 40 - 60</li><li>Ca 20 - 30</li></ul><li>Reminder that to monitor water intake, urine frequency and colour is the way to go.</li><li>Condition most likely to encounter on the trail is "exercise-associated hyponatremia", aka drinking plenty of fluids, but not enough electrolytes. One symptom of hyponatremia is swelling, in particular in hands and feet. Ring is a sensitive instrument... "snug fit, time to start taking on electrolytes with water. Loosey goosey? No need to supplement beyond what already get from trail snacks."</li></ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQMrxaoJ4XA/X463-tRU5cI/AAAAAAABdyk/_X_YOq6QKRomN6AU7l6TGTbfItk6Uw7eACLcBGAsYHQ/s474/electrolyte%2Bchart%2Bdiagram.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="474" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQMrxaoJ4XA/X463-tRU5cI/AAAAAAABdyk/_X_YOq6QKRomN6AU7l6TGTbfItk6Uw7eACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/electrolyte%2Bchart%2Bdiagram.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of sodium - 4,500mg would be for long days hiking in the heat<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Practice</span></i></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultralight/comments/i023nd/ultralight_food_performance_nutrition_for/fzp0gf3/" target="_blank">follow-up comment</a> on what that might look like in practice:</span></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1a1a1b; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px 0.25em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Breakfast - a 2-serving Backpacker's Pantry Granola, 1240 Cal, 34g protein</span></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1a1a1b; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px 0.25em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Trail Snacks - your average Kind bar ranks as Light or Very Light, runs close to a 4:1 ratio and has an average 5g protein per 200 Cal, extrapolate for 1000 Cal of same or similar to get another 25g protein</span></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1a1a1b; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px 0.25em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recovery Shake - Gatorade Recover packet and a Starbucks Via, gives the right ratio for 370 Cal and 21g protein</span></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1a1a1b; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px 0.25em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dinner - Mountain House Chicken & Dumplings 2-serving pouch, 600 Cal and 33g protein</span></p><p class="_1qeIAgB0cPwnLhDF9XSiJM" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1a1a1b; font-family: "Noto Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.8em 0px 0.25em; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-14177317968619115992020-07-25T23:03:00.001+10:002020-07-25T23:03:36.723+10:00Teaching Sight WordsThere are a lot of books on parenting. Before my daughter was born I read a book on pregnancy, one of those 500 pages texts from a high class place - Mayo Clinic or Harvard or something like that. It was helpful, but given I can't even remember the name, clearly not something that I considered life changing.<div><br /></div><div>However, after reading <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Million-Words-Building-Childs-ebook/dp/B00SI02BHE" target="_blank">Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain</a> I was all hyped up to drown my new kid in words. We travelled a lot when she was young, so didn't have a lot of books, but she sure had them read to her. When I took a year off as a stay-at-home-dad I kept having those 30 million words ticking in my mind. By the time she was 2 1/2 she was getting five books read to her a night. By the time she was around 3 1/2 she was listening to Amazon Story Time for an hour every evening.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also around 3 she started playing <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/khan-academy-kids/id1378467217" target="_blank">Khan Kids</a>, and could play it for ages if I let her. There was no doubt that she enjoyed learning, and it was lovely to see her take each new step.</div><div><br /></div><div>She entered Kindy when she was about 4 1/2, so one of the younger kids. Her school was teaching them how to read by having them sound out words, look for clues, but also to just brute force a few 100 of the most frequently used words. These were called "sight words", and knowing them supposedly speeds up their comprehension for easier texts, which left more energy for the words they didn't know. Sounds good to me.</div><div><br /></div><div>Without getting into too much detail, the first part of the year was quite challenging for us. At one point I realised I wasn't really helping her as much with her school work as I could have, and while she certainly wasn't falling behind, I also knew she had extra potential that wasn't being explored.</div><div><br /></div><div>Given all this background, I started to take her sight words seriously. I bought a laminator and made her little flash cards, and put in place some low-fi <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition" target="_blank">spaced repetition</a>, so she wouldn't need to go over 100s of easy words every day. This meant we could go over the "known" words on the weekend, and the less well known words over breakfast.</div><div><br /></div><div>The system works like this: a new sheet gets made and we play a little game where a subset of the cards gets put on the table, and I shout out a word. She finds the word, and we put it in the "learn" bag. Sometimes she knows it, and sometimes needs to sound it out.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUkcawQ5k2Q/XxwpRoCjPCI/AAAAAAABc7g/_Tti6HEzdZUULp-p-cGB712NHCI48a9dgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4893.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Learning New Words" border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="469" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUkcawQ5k2Q/XxwpRoCjPCI/AAAAAAABc7g/_Tti6HEzdZUULp-p-cGB712NHCI48a9dgCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h469/IMG_4893.jpeg" width="625" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learning New Words<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>This is pretty easy for her, for example, if I say "give" then she knows only one word starts with a "g", so chooses that. After doing this a few times we then go through the "learn" bag like normal flash words: I show the word, and let her say it back to me. If she gets it right a few times and clearly has instant recall, then it goes in the "young" bag.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L1g41qRIXeY/Xxwp_W0h_kI/AAAAAAABc7o/yKrdN3UECxwWTFsbYOXSFJQbhT2499MnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4892.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="469" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L1g41qRIXeY/Xxwp_W0h_kI/AAAAAAABc7o/yKrdN3UECxwWTFsbYOXSFJQbhT2499MnwCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h469/IMG_4892.jpeg" width="625" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting Mastery<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>After she gets it right a few more times, then the card goes in the "mature" bag.</div><div><br /></div><div>We do the "learn" bag every breakfast, and the "young" bag every few breakfasts. We do the "mature" bag usually on the weekend or on a Monday morning. If she gets a word wrong, then it goes the other way (e.g. from "mature" back in to "young" or directly to "learn" again).</div><div><br /></div><div>I am really impressed with her school, as most of the kids in kindergarten seem like they can read. Although some of the kids know more sight words than her that's not the point; she has an easier time reading, and I sometimes hear her reading to herself in her room.</div><div><br /></div><div>One thing to note is that she gets no rewards for doing her sight words, but there are almost never any complaints. However, we do have an agreement that when she can read a "level 5" book, which I think is about a grade 4 book, then I will buy her a copy of Harry Potter and we will each read a copy. I can't wait!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-46533779393161176822019-06-24T21:23:00.004+10:002020-06-24T22:04:29.934+10:00My First Aid Kit (Backpacking)<h2 style="text-align: left;">Background</h2><div><br /></div>I have two first aid kits: one that is in my bag when I go to work, and another when I go hiking. The one in my bag has more stuff in it, but overall the contents are pretty similar. In particular with the hiking kit I am only carrying what is likely to be used, items that cannot be improvised with what I can find, and items that I know how to use. It would be easy to <i>pack my fears</i> and include a tourniquet or triangle bandage or EpiPen, but if I allowed myself to fear that level of risk I would also wear a helmet while walking across crosswalks. The reality is I am much more likely to get blisters, minor cuts, and lots of sore muscles.<div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Drugs</h2><div><br /></div><div>So, what's it in my kit? Let's start with the drugs.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bPjxbvX6-b4/XvMthQ0WSfI/AAAAAAABcc8/VUOft7IdpjYLQ9e8bpz5AR4z_N5BoCPXgCK4BGAsYHg/s4032/IMG_4728.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bPjxbvX6-b4/XvMthQ0WSfI/AAAAAAABcc8/VUOft7IdpjYLQ9e8bpz5AR4z_N5BoCPXgCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h480/IMG_4728.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of drugs<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>Pretty standard set of drugs I think. Here's why I have each in my kit:</div><div><br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Paracetamol: normal headaches</li><li>Ibuprofen aka Vitamin I: aches and pains</li><li>Paracetamol + Ibuprofen: really bad headaches or pain</li><li>Telfast: itchies, but mainly for other people</li><li>Aspirin: heart attacks, but mainly for other people (very unlikely, but also weights nothing)</li><li>Gastro-stop: self-explanatory</li></ul><div>You will notice that I keep these in little coin bags with dosage and expiry. I have noticed people previously hiking with full bottles of each of these.</div></div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Other Stuff</h2><div><br /></div><div>Let's move on to the other stuff.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-waQR2o5p3zA/XvMwFmC4bpI/AAAAAAABcdY/tjp3K5QZIXEQYNHSSP_nmRiOPegm7FtIQCK4BGAsYHg/s4032/IMG_4727.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-waQR2o5p3zA/XvMwFmC4bpI/AAAAAAABcdY/tjp3K5QZIXEQYNHSSP_nmRiOPegm7FtIQCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h480/IMG_4727.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All the other stuff<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>And to walk through this stuff left to right:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Tiny Westcott titanium sewing scissors with a set of tweezer wrapped in Velcro. Lighter than the smallest Swiss army knife, and more function on both items I might use. Tweezers are for both splinters and ticks.</li><li>Two sewing needles with some thread. Need better storage mechanism.</li><li>Some band-aids</li><li>Lots of Leukotape</li><li>Patch for inflatable</li><li>Patch for puffy or tent</li><li>One gauze pad</li><li>One Antibiotic gel</li><li>Some alcohol wipes</li><li>One antiseptic wipes</li></ul><div>I am always open to suggestions, but at this point I am not certain what else I would carry. I am contemplating getting rid of the gel/wipes, as I have never used them. The things I use most are the Leukotape, pain killers, and scissors. I am contemplating adding a snakebite kit if I go to more remote areas here in Australia, but if I was hiking in other countries I wouldn't bother.</div><div><br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-46551202022936666662019-06-02T21:53:00.005+10:002023-04-01T21:42:33.860+11:00Overland Track Lighter Pack Tips<h2 style="line-height: 1.5;">
Background</h2><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div>
My hiking companion and I recently completed the Overland Track in Tasmania, and she posted a picture of our packs on a related group on Facebook. There was an overwhelming response, ranging from <i style="line-height: 1.5;">good job!</i> to <i style="line-height: 1.5;">you're a liar</i> or <i style="line-height: 1.5;">you surely didn't have a tent</i> or <i style="line-height: 1.5;">you must be on a tour and didn't bring food</i>.<br />
<br />
I can understand the skepticism. Upon inspecting what people brought, and never used, there is definitely a preference for people to <i style="line-height: 1.5;">pack their fears</i>. Considering this track seemed to be the first time many people have done a multi-day backpacking trip, there were a lot of things they likely would not pack after gaining a little more experience.<div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">The consequences were very real. Most people had knee or foot problems by the time they reached Narcissus Hut, and I was one of only a few people able to hike out (~18km) when the ferry was cancelled (made it in about 3hr 45min and made my transport). One of my more lasting memories from the hike was stumbling on a couple hiking and one of the people being <i style="line-height: 1.5;">unable to cross a fallen tree because their bag was too heavy</i>, and their partner had to help push them up.<br />
<br />The track was likely especially scary for newcomers given the weather we encountered was "the worst so far this season", according to our track transport. A week before we went the weather was supposed to be six days of glorious 5 - 10 C temperatures with only a little drizzle. The night before we flew out of Sydney it was forecasted to snow 1 - 2 mm one of the days. The actual weather was non-stop rain or snow, temperatures ranging from -2 to 3 C, and we only saw blue sky once. Once. I don't remember ever seeing the sun from start-to-finish. It felt like we spent more time walking in streams or mud than on actual dry soil.<div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody style="line-height: 1.5;"><tr style="line-height: 1.5;"><td style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HTnio18abEY/XvM5bFL0nVI/AAAAAAABcd0/QcfPOMxR89YbceMlVzoYA1lQCOOuFs3dwCK4BGAsYHg/s2944/Overland.png" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2640" data-original-width="2944" height="574" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HTnio18abEY/XvM5bFL0nVI/AAAAAAABcd0/QcfPOMxR89YbceMlVzoYA1lQCOOuFs3dwCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h574/Overland.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1.5;"><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;">The Overland Track. Plan ahead and say goodbye to mobile reception.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br />Given we encountered just about the worst the trail could throw at us outside of winter, how do we know we brought just the right amount of stuff?</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">
<br />
1) We were one of only two parties from our van transport that even stayed in our tent<br />
2) We never shivered a single time, nor did we think we were ever in any danger<br />
3) The ferry was cancelled when we rolled in to Narcissus Hut, so 16 extra people had to stay overnight; about five of them didn't have enough food, and we were the ones giving them food because we had plenty of food remaining (that said, we were also 1 1/2 days ahead of schedule)<br />
4) People routinely borrowed our lighter, as the piezo on their stove was broken<br />
5) We had hot meals every night, coffee twice a day, and still had fuel left over<br />
6) We let three people charge their phones at NH so they could sort out travel arrangements, as they didn't have a spare power bank<br />
<br />
<h2 style="line-height: 1.5;">
Suggestion From What We Saw</h2>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Here's a list of things that we saw people bring, but with suggested substitutes that would reduce overall weight while not reducing safety or comfort. You might think "that's only 50g savings", but it all adds up. We had by far the lightest bags with a total pack weight of around 8 kg (with 1 litre of water), and the heaviest in our van was 23kg. Most were around 15kg.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
<h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">
Camp Shoes</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Seen Brought: 2nd pair of sneakers for camp shoes</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Better: Crocs/Flip-Flops or hotel slippers</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Best: Plastic bags</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
A lot of people brought a 2nd pair of sneakers just for walking around the huts. Many people were a little more wise and brought a lighter pair of Crocs (good for socks, but mine weight 349g) or flip-flops (mine weigh 155g), but I'd argue that hotel slippers (mine weigh just 39g) serve the same purpose. Or bring two bread bags and when you get to the hut take off your wet socks, put them immediately on or near the heater, put on your sleep socks, and put on bread bags on top of them. You can then wear your wet shoes without getting your sleep socks wet.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">
Fresh Fruit / Veggies</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Seen Brought: Fresh Fruit/Veggies</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Better: Dried fruit / dehydrated veggies</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Best: None</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Feel free to bring a fresh apple for lunch the first day, but fresh fruit is extremely heavy for the calories they provide. We saw people four days in giving away cucumbers / zucchini. To put this in perspective, 100g of cucumbers have 72 calories vs. 100g of peanut m&m have 516 calories.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">
Tinned Food</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Seen Brought: Cans of tuna</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Better: Starkist tuna packets</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Best: Jerkey or biltong or just nuts or peanut butter m&m</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
On my first multi-day hike several years ago with this hiking companion my shopping instructions where: if it has to cook, then it needs to be able to be done in less than 3 minutes, and no cans or jars of anything. Bringing in a can of tuna, which isn't even that calorie dense to begin with, means you have to keep carrying that tin your entire hike. If you must bring in a tuna packet, but do a little research, as you can save significant weight by paying attention to the food you bring. Please see <a href="https://andrewskurka.com/the-5000-calories-per-day-wilderness-diet/" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Skurka's post</a> for some overall tips, and then over at <a href="https://www.greenbelly.co/pages/best-high-calorie-backpacking-foods" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Greenbelly</a> for some actual food/weight breakdown. Please see below for our food breakdown. We deviated a little bit in what we ended up buying in TAS (e.g. no banana chips), but it was plenty. If you have the time, and like planning, then consider doing the same. Alternatively, and this is the guideline I follow if I do not intend to do much planning, then try to buy food at Woolies or Coles that is as close to 2000kJ per 100g as possible.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody style="line-height: 1.5;"><tr style="line-height: 1.5;"><td style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4a7tx_TOk0/XvKpplEUkZI/AAAAAAABccc/SFU0DX_gEeELBTf225nxFKcM86CP_N0MQCK4BGAsYHg/s2028/Food.png" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1180" data-original-width="2028" height="372" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K4a7tx_TOk0/XvKpplEUkZI/AAAAAAABccc/SFU0DX_gEeELBTf225nxFKcM86CP_N0MQCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h372/Food.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1.5;"><td class="tr-caption" style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;">Initial food planning for two<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Tools / Kitchen Stuff</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Seen Brought: Small cast iron skillet, hunting knives</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Better: Not a cast iron skillet</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">A lot of people were cooking pretty elaborate meals, which is pretty impressive. They also brought four pans and three canisters of fuel. I hesitate making recommendations on food, but I'd probably suggest getting some dehydrated meals from Snowys a few weeks in advance, and you won't need all those pots and pans. Another nice thing is you can use the package as a container, so one less bowl to bring and clean. Bring one spoon with a long handle (sporks might sound nice, but if you're eating cous cous or something small, then you can't easily scoop it up, and I would hesitate that you might pop a hole in a dehydrated bag).</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div>
</div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">
Duplicate Clothing / Cotton</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Seen Brought: "I'm wearing four fleeces" or duplicates of every item</div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Best: <a href="https://andrewskurka.com/2015/backpacking-core-clothing-thirteen-3-season-conditions/" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Skurka's Core 13</a></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.5;">
TAS Parks provides a list of minimum gear that you need to bring, but I don't think you need to bring more than what is on it. Even better would be to read the article by Andrew Skurka on the Core 13 items he suggests you bring. We surprisingly saw quite a bit of cotton shirts / pants being worn, which was a surprise.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">
Big Trowel</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">
Seen Brought: Metal garden trowels</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Better: Deuce of spaces</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Best: Nada</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">I typically carry a 'deuce of spades' on any overnight, but in the case of the Overland, if doing it again, I'd probably skip bringing it. There are toilets at every site, and the ground was pretty moist, so digging a cat hold wouldn't be a problem.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Water</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Seen Brought: People carrying 5L of water</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Better: 2L</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Best: 1L + Sawyer Squeeze (filter)</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">When we went there was water everywhere, like, it felt like most of our time was walking in streams. If you aren't in a stream, then you are no more than 1km away from crossing some stream. Our van driver / ex-guide said she didn't filter often, but for some reason I have a fear of water, so I tend to always filter unless high up in the mountains. I brought a 1L balance water bottle and a filter, and never once needed more than that. Most of the time I just filtered at the huts and filled up there.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">First Aid Kits</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Seen Brought: 1kg kits from Big W</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Better: make it yourself</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">It seems like quite a few people thought "huh, I need a FAK, I'll get the next one I see" and end up with something that has a million bandaids and big gauze pads, but nothing you actually need. You can <a href="https://www.kelvinism.com/2019/06/my-first-aid-kit-backpacking.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">see what is in my FAK</a>, which probably still has too many wipes, but I can deal with the most common issues: blisters, and soreness. It weights about 60g / 2oz.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><h3 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="5" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Books</font></h3><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Seen Brought: several hardback books</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Better: Kindles</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Best: skip books and chat with people or Audible</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">One lady opened her bag and pulled out <i style="line-height: 1.5;">multiple</i> books, read for 20 minutes, then chatted with people. Bring a kindle. Or realise it is only 4 - 6 days, and leave the books at home and chat with people. I tend to load up my phone with books on Audible or podcasts.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><h2 style="line-height: 1.5;">We Wish We Brought...</h2></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">You can read above that we had planned more for the experience than most people, and we have done several other multi-day hikes previous. I am immensely glad I read one of Ray Jardin's books back in ~2002 to learn how to prepare for backpacking and stop packing my fears.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 1.5;">There wasn't much we wish we would have brought, except for perhaps some type of mittens that would have blocked the wind. When hiking on the ridges the temperature ended up dropping significantly, and when combined with the wind, it made my hands quite cold. We kept moving and that kept us generating heat, but stopping on a ridge would have been uncomfortable.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5;"><br /></div>
</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-28338677059516994732018-05-26T14:08:00.002+10:002023-04-01T21:42:53.495+11:00IoT Foray with Sonoff S20 / IFTTT / Lambda / CloudMQTTI recently purchased an Echo from Amazon, and we were contemplating how else to better integrate it with our somewhat minimalistic home. I thought it would be interesting to get it to link to a WiFi-enabled power outlet, but unfortunately they are pretty expensive in Australia.<br />
<br />
Then I stumbled across the <a href="http://sonoff.itead.cc/en/" target="_blank">Sonoff</a> devices by Itead, and learned that they were somewhat hackable via a <a href="https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota" target="_blank">custom firmware</a>. Coincidentally I received the two devices on the same day my daughter was off sick, so when she had her nap, I got hacking.<br />
<br />
The first bottleneck was discovering that the units I received did not have any headers. A little quick soldering later, and we had headers.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SMVHgxu35Cs/WwjZC_QXwlI/AAAAAAABRMQ/w4ohVBnoeL07HzX8IUH6JZjx8FYtcKvkACLcBGAs/s1600/20180502_200103.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SMVHgxu35Cs/WwjZC_QXwlI/AAAAAAABRMQ/w4ohVBnoeL07HzX8IUH6JZjx8FYtcKvkACLcBGAs/s640/20180502_200103.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No headers mom :(</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A_iLHV6qmi4/WwjZEU2OxeI/AAAAAAABRMU/rsIG7t2-mtI_RJhShj04A_flZWUiRmNeQCLcBGAs/s1600/20180502_163741.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A_iLHV6qmi4/WwjZEU2OxeI/AAAAAAABRMU/rsIG7t2-mtI_RJhShj04A_flZWUiRmNeQCLcBGAs/s640/20180502_163741.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now we have headers!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A few notes of warning: the $2 programmer I got from AliExpress has 3.3v and 5v, but the <i>output</i> is 5v. I'm glad I measured it with my multimeter, and used a random 3.3v breadboard supply instead.<br />
<br />
In hindsight I wish I had just purchased the <a href="https://www.itead.cc/foca.html" target="_blank">FTDI programmer</a> from Itead. It looks pretty neat.<br />
<br />
After following the rest of the Tasmoto <a href="https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota/wiki/Sonoff-S20-Smart-Socket" target="_blank">hardware instructions</a>, and then the <a href="https://github.com/arendst/Sonoff-Tasmota/wiki/Upload" target="_blank">PlatformIO instructions</a>, I was able to successfully flash both my units with the custom firmware.<br />
<br />
I then created a Lambda function that sends a signal to CloudMQTT, and connected the two devices.<br />
<br />
Voila!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/r0aE5gpFUtU/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="532" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r0aE5gpFUtU?feature=player_embedded" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-90650598160205867972014-12-13T10:00:00.000+11:002016-04-11T04:13:25.547+10:00Geocoding Photos (Mac)I've recently started using OSX (again), and am really enjoying it (again). One Windows-only tool that I found really useful is <a href="http://www.geosetter.de/en/" target="_blank">Geosetter</a>, which allows you to add geo coordinates into photos. There don't appear to be any free geocoding tools that work to my satisfaction to do this, so the next best thing was geocode like you would using Linux. Here's how.<br />
<br />
We're going to use the command line program <a href="http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/" target="_blank">ExifTool</a> (by Phil Harvey) to extract coordinates from a gpx file and embed them in a directory of images.<br />
<br />
Firstly, install exiftool using <a href="http://brew.sh/" target="_blank">brew</a>. Here's the command:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">brew install exiftool
</pre>
<br />
Copy the gpx files into your image directory and initiate the sync with the geotag flag:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">exiftool -geotag=gpslog2014-12-10_212401.gpx ./
</pre>
<br />
It is possible to also specify multiple gpx files (e.g. multiple day trip):<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">exiftool -geotag=gpslog2014-12-10_212401.gpx -geotag=gpslog2014-12-07_132315.gpx -geotag=gpslog2014-12-08_181318.gpx -geotag=gpslog2014-12-10_073811.gpx ./
</pre>
<br />
And finally, you can include a time offset with the geosync flag. For instance, I had an 11-hour (39600 seconds) difference due to a timezone hiccup with my new camera, so we can get rid of that:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">exiftool -geotag=gpslog2014-12-10_212401.gpx -geotag=gpslog2014-12-07_132315.gpx -geotag=gpslog2014-12-08_181318.gpx -geotag=gpslog2014-12-10_073811.gpx -geosync=39600 ./
</pre>
<br />
It will process the images, renaming the original with an ".original" extension, and give you a report at the end:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">1 directories scanned
193 image files updated
83 image files unchanged
</pre>
<br />
If your camera is set to GMT, then put all the GPX files in the same directory as the photos to geocode, and do this:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">TZ=GMT exiftool -geotag "*.gpx" *.jpg
</pre>
<br />
For any additional manual geocoding I fallback on <strike>Picasa's Places</strike> <a data-jsbanchorprepared="DbMHD3VqBP0TPju" href="http://www.snafu.org/GeoTag/" target="_blank">GeoTag</a> to add the coordinates.<br />
<br />
If you have Lightroom, then try doing a search for a suitable ExifTool Lightroom plugin, as there seem to be a few.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-33662473912370457922014-11-01T23:37:00.001+11:002014-11-02T12:08:36.198+11:00Snap-CI Deploy to OpenShiftThere are some wonderful <a href="http://www.thoughtworks.com/continuous-integration" target="_blank">CI</a> / <a href="http://www.thoughtworks.com/continuous-delivery" target="_blank">CD</a> tools out there right now, and some of them have very usable free tiers. A few good examples include <a href="https://www.shippable.com/" target="_blank">Shippable</a>, <a href="http://wercker.com/" target="_blank">Wercker</a>, <a href="http://www.cloudbees.com/products/dev" target="_blank">CloudBees,</a> and <a href="https://www.snap-ci.com/" target="_blank">Snap-CI</a>. There are others, of course, but these all allow at least one private project to get started.<br />
<br />
I have recently moved my projects to Snap, and my hack for the day needed to be deployed to OpenShift. Although Snap has built in integrations for some providers, no such integration currently exists for OpenShift (yet!). However, it takes less than 10 minutes to configure a Deploy step to OpenShift, and here's how.<br />
<br />
<b>Add SSH Keys</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> You will need to add your private SSH key (i.e. id_rsa) to Snap, and your public key to OpenShift (i.e. id_rsa.pub)<br />
<br />
You can create the keys on another machine with the ssh-keygen command, and copy them into them into the corresponding places. In OpenShift, this is under Settings -> Add a new key. Once open, paste in the contents of your id_rsa.pub key<br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FAOkoHtiAbE/VFTTXRCHVTI/AAAAAAAAzzs/unslYftdRAk/s1600/openshift.tiff" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FAOkoHtiAbE/VFTTXRCHVTI/AAAAAAAAzzs/unslYftdRAk/s320/openshift.tiff" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="clear">
<br /></div>
<br />
In Snap, edit your configuration, navigate to your Deploy step, and look for "Secure Files" and "Add new"<br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7mCb7t6Zx10/VFTPILBrYDI/AAAAAAAAzzA/_4w4hVbMWFg/s1600/AddFiles.tiff" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7mCb7t6Zx10/VFTPILBrYDI/AAAAAAAAzzA/_4w4hVbMWFg/s320/AddFiles.tiff" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="clear">
<br /></div>
<br />
Get the content of the id_rsa key you generated earlier and post it in the content box. It should look like this, with "/var/go" as the file location, except with a real key:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sepz4rpExac/VFTPrxnxCnI/AAAAAAAAzzM/SQ7MhqeyBDM/s1600/AddIdRSA.tiff" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sepz4rpExac/VFTPrxnxCnI/AAAAAAAAzzM/SQ7MhqeyBDM/s400/AddIdRSA.tiff" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="clear">
<br /></div>
<br />
<b>Enable Git Push from Snap</b><br />
<br />
If you've used ssh much, you are probably aware that that you can specify an identify file with the "-i" flag. The git command has no such flag, yet, but we can create a simple bash script that emulates this (script courtesy of <a href="http://alvinabad.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/how-to-specify-an-ssh-key-file-with-the-git-command/">Alvin Abad</a>).<br />
<br />
Add another New File in Snap and paste in the below script:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">#!/bin/bash
# The MIT License (MIT)
# Copyright (c) 2013 Alvin Abad
if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
echo "Git wrapper script that can specify an ssh-key file
Usage:
git.sh -i ssh-key-file git-command
"
exit 1
fi
# remove temporary file on exit
trap 'rm -f /tmp/.git_ssh.$$' 0
if [ "$1" = "-i" ]; then
SSH_KEY=$2; shift; shift
echo "ssh -i $SSH_KEY \$@" > /tmp/.git_ssh.$$
chmod +x /tmp/.git_ssh.$$
export GIT_SSH=/tmp/.git_ssh.$$
fi
# in case the git command is repeated
[ "$1" = "git" ] && shift
# Run the git command
git "$@"
</pre>
<br />
Give this script the name "git.sh", set the file permissions to "0755", and update the file location to "/var/go".<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ALKsbFDB04Y/VFTSQQe6iSI/AAAAAAAAzzc/3f-oTdM3_J4/s1600/gitsh.tiff" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ALKsbFDB04Y/VFTSQQe6iSI/AAAAAAAAzzc/3f-oTdM3_J4/s400/gitsh.tiff" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="clear">
<br /></div>
<b>Profit</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
With all these parts configured correctly you can add this single line to your Deploy script:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; ">/var/go/git.sh -i /var/go/id_rsa push ssh://ABCDEFGHIJK123@example.yourdomain.rhcloud.com/~/git/example.git/
</pre>
<br />
Re-run the build, check your logs, and it should deploy. Good luck!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-46991957963398236832014-07-02T18:13:00.002+10:002014-07-02T18:15:11.329+10:00Solved: slow build times from Dockerfiles with Python packages (pip)I have recently had the opportunity to begin exploring <a href="http://www.docker.com/">Docker</a>, the currently hip way to build application containers, and I generally like it. It feels a bit like using Xen back in 2005, when you still had to download it from cl.cam.ac.uk, but there is <i>huge</i> momentum right now. I like the idea of breaking down each component of your application into unique services and bundling them up - it seems clean. The next year is going to be very interesting with Docker, as I am especially looking forward to seeing how Google's App Engine allows Docker usage, or what's in store for the likes of Flynn, Deis, CoreOS, or Stackdock.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One element I had been frustrated with is the build time of my image to host a Django application I'm working on. I kept hearing these crazy low rebuild times, but my container was taking ages to rebuild. I noticed that it was cached up until I re-added my code, and then pip would reinstall all my packages.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It appeared as though anything after I used ADD for my code was being rebuilt, and reading online seemed to confirm this. Most of the items were very quick, e.g. "EXPOSE 80", but then it hit "RUN pip -r requirements.txt"</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There are various documented ways around this, from two Dockerfiles to just using packaged libraries. However, I found it easier to just use multiple ADD statements, and the good Docker folks have added caching for them. The idea is to ADD your requirements first, then RUN pip, and then ADD your code. This will mean that any code changes don't invalidate the pip cache.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For instance, I had something (abbreviated snippet) like this:</div>
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; "># Set the base image to Ubuntu
FROM ubuntu:14.04
# Update the sources list
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get upgrade -y
# Install basic applications
RUN apt-get install -y build-essential
# Install Python and Basic Python Tools
RUN apt-get install -y python python-dev python-distribute python-pip postgresql-client
# Copy the application folder inside the container
ADD . /app
# Get pip to download and install requirements:
RUN pip install -r /app/requirements.txt
# Expose ports
EXPOSE 80 8000
# Set the default directory where CMD will execute
WORKDIR /app
VOLUME [/app]
CMD ["sh", "/app/run.sh"]
</pre>
<br />
<div>
And it rebuild pip whenever the code changes. Just add the requirements and move the RUN pip line:</div>
<br />
<pre class="brush: plain; light: true; "># Set the base image to Ubuntu
FROM ubuntu:14.04
# Update the sources list
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get upgrade -y
# Install basic applications
RUN apt-get install -y build-essential
# Install Python and Basic Python Tools
RUN apt-get install -y python python-dev python-distribute python-pip postgresql-client
ADD requirements.txt /app/requirements.txt
# Get pip to download and install requirements:
RUN pip install -r /app/requirements.txt
# Copy the application folder inside the container
ADD . /app
# Expose ports
EXPOSE 80 8000
# Set the default directory where CMD will execute
WORKDIR /app
VOLUME [/app]
CMD ["sh", "/app/run.sh"]
</pre>
<br />
I feel a bit awkward for having missed something that must be so obvious, so hopefully this can help somebody in a similar situation.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-19753153787697309702014-05-07T12:50:00.003+10:002014-05-07T12:51:31.949+10:00TLS Module In SaltStack Not Available (Fixed)I was trying to install <a href="https://github.com/saltstack/halite">HALite</a>, the WebUI for <a href="http://www.saltstack.com/">SaltStack</a>, using the provided instructions. However, I kept getting the following errors when trying to create the certificates using Salt:<br />
<code><br />
'tls.create_ca_signed_cert' is not available.<br />
'tls.create_ca' is not available.</code><br />
<code><br /></code>
Basically, the 'tls' module in Salt simply didn't appear to work. The reason for this is detailed on <a href="http://intothesaltmine.org/install_and_configure_halite_alpha_on_arch_linux.html">intothesaltmind.org</a>:<br />
<br />
<i>Note: Use of the tls module within Salt requires the pyopenssl python extension.</i><br />
<br />
That makes sense. We can fix this with something like:<br />
<code><br />
apt-get install libffi-dev<br />
pip install -U pyOpenSSL<br />
/etc/init.d/salt-minion restart</code><br />
<code><br /></code>
Or, better yet, with Salt alone:<br />
<br />
<code>
salt '*' cmd.run 'apt-get install libffi-dev'<br />
salt '*' pip.install pyOpenSSL<br />
salt '*' cmd.run "service salt-minion restart"</code><br />
<code><br /></code>
The commands to create the PKI key should work now:<br />
<br />
<code>
Created Private Key: "/etc/pki/salt/salt_ca_cert.key." Created CA "salt": "/etc/pki/salt/salt_ca_cert.crt."<br />
</code>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-38447576011367835372014-04-30T19:00:00.002+10:002023-04-01T21:43:10.616+11:00Beers of Myanmar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w4Dk3bmuN5M/U15OfvLCVNI/AAAAAAAAMlQ/__3bMv7cPyM/s1600/IMG_20140423_082522.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w4Dk3bmuN5M/U15OfvLCVNI/AAAAAAAAMlQ/__3bMv7cPyM/s1600/IMG_20140423_082522.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w4Dk3bmuN5M/U15OfvLCVNI/AAAAAAAAMlQ/__3bMv7cPyM/s1600/IMG_20140423_082522.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w4Dk3bmuN5M/U15OfvLCVNI/AAAAAAAAMlQ/__3bMv7cPyM/s1600/IMG_20140423_082522.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
While in Myanmar on a recent trip I did a brief taste comparison of the three main beers available in most supermarkets.<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Andaman</b> - Not to my taste, perhaps like XXXX, VB, Natural Light, or a light Steel Reserve.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Myanmar</b> - Quite refreshing, a bit like similar beers in the region, e.g. Chang, Tiger, or Laos Beer.<br />
<br />
<b>ABC</b> - An extra stout (and 8%!) in such a hot country? That's a surprise.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-20369983919106191252014-03-01T10:02:00.000+11:002014-03-01T10:02:46.766+11:00Error opening /dev/sda: No medium foundI have had this issue before, solved it, and had it again.<br />
<br />
Let's say you plug in a USB drive into a Linux machine, and try to access it (mount it, partition it with fdisk/parted, or format it), and you get the error<br />
<code><br />
Error opening /dev/sda: No medium found<br />
</code><br />
<br />
Naturally the first thing you will do is ensure that it appeared when you plugged it in, so you run 'dmesg' and get:<br />
<code><br />
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 125045424 512-byte logical blocks: (64.0 GB/59.6 GiB)<br />
</code><br />
<br />
And it appears in /dev<br />
<code><br />
Computer:~ $ ls /dev/sd*<br />
/dev/sda<br />
Computer:~ $<br />
</code><br />
<br />
Now what? Here's what has bitten me twice: make sure the drive has enough power. Let's say you mounted a 2.5" USB drive into a Raspberry Pi. The Pi probably doesn't have enough current to power the drive, but it <i>does</i> have enough to make the drive recognisable. Or, if you are like me, the USB charger powering the drive is faulty, so even though it has power, it doesn't have enough.<br />
<br />
The next troubleshooting step should be obvious: give the drive enough power to completely spin up.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-21332365724138758522014-01-05T14:45:00.002+11:002020-06-24T22:18:17.637+10:00Continuous Flow Through Worm BinStatus: <i class="fas fa-check-circle"></i><br />
<br />
A few months ago we decided we wanted a worm bin, as we were eating a lot of vegetables, and tossing away bits that weren't used. We were also buying soil for our plants, so it made sense to try to turn one into another.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One of our friends gave us some worms from her compost - no idea what kind - and I build an experimental CFT worm bin (<a href="http://vermicomposters.ning.com/forum/topics/diy-flow-through-bins-a" target="_blank">sample plans</a>). We harvested once at about two months, but I don't think it was quite ready. We'll keep experimenting.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<table><tbody>
<tr> <td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EsdCWUhYW-Q/UsjS0BDxBYI/AAAAAAAAL5U/PB3c3O_6RkA/s1600/IMG_20130818_203929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EsdCWUhYW-Q/UsjS0BDxBYI/AAAAAAAAL5U/PB3c3O_6RkA/s320/IMG_20130818_203929.jpg" width="241" /></a></td> <td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hB2yW2jROi8/UsjS6fKYzkI/AAAAAAAAL5k/6XiwwT7LVE8/s1600/IMG_20130818_204002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hB2yW2jROi8/UsjS6fKYzkI/AAAAAAAAL5k/6XiwwT7LVE8/s320/IMG_20130818_204002.jpg" width="240" /></a></td> </tr>
<tr> <td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fwPF6BNNXXc/UsjS7dUbjFI/AAAAAAAAL5c/OH7KA0b3WWI/s1600/IMG_20130818_210945.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fwPF6BNNXXc/UsjS7dUbjFI/AAAAAAAAL5c/OH7KA0b3WWI/s320/IMG_20130818_210945.jpg" width="240" /></a></td> <td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6h7IDXAZkwU/UsjS8K-VypI/AAAAAAAAL5g/_lvKMwiB1kU/s1600/IMG_20130831_182837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6h7IDXAZkwU/UsjS8K-VypI/AAAAAAAAL5g/_lvKMwiB1kU/s320/IMG_20130831_182837.jpg" width="240" /></a></td> </tr>
<tr> <td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VwiBvT36dlY/UsjS9gO7ImI/AAAAAAAAL50/QPwnTNa7Bjk/s1600/IMG_20130831_183138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VwiBvT36dlY/UsjS9gO7ImI/AAAAAAAAL50/QPwnTNa7Bjk/s320/IMG_20130831_183138.jpg" width="240" /></a></td> <td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jv1h0CQ8zpI/UsjSwcOsazI/AAAAAAAAL5M/z21VKYQxQus/s1600/IMG_20130818_203923.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jv1h0CQ8zpI/UsjSwcOsazI/AAAAAAAAL5M/z21VKYQxQus/s320/IMG_20130818_203923.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>
</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-81098028319326277782013-11-28T00:18:00.000+11:002014-04-12T13:08:15.085+10:00Free Splunk Hosting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Du7j3RxEyn4/U0it4Pr3YlI/AAAAAAAAMDc/-89NH8uWy7A/s1600/SplunkOpenShift.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Du7j3RxEyn4/U0it4Pr3YlI/AAAAAAAAMDc/-89NH8uWy7A/s1600/SplunkOpenShift.png" height="200" width="400" /></a></div>
I first used Splunk about 10 years ago after an old colleague installed it on a computer in the corner, and ever since then I have preached about it. If you have log data, of any kind, I'd recommend you give it a go.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The Splunk people have a a few pretty good options for trying Splunk out, as you can either use <a href="https://www.splunkstorm.com/" target="_blank">Splunk Storm</a> or Splunk Free. The first option is obviously hosted, and has a generous storage option, but also does not allow long term storage of data. I send system log data to Splunk Storm.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
However, what if you don't have a lot of data, but you want to keep that data forever? After reading <span id="goog_1253560755"></span><a href="https://twitter.com/edrabbit" target="_blank">Ed Hunsinger<span id="goog_1253560756"></span>'s</a> <a href="http://blogs.splunk.com/2013/10/22/go-splunk-yourself/" target="_blank">Go Splunk Yourself</a> entry about using it for Quantified Self data, I knew I had to do the same.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
From personal experience, Splunk requires <i>at least</i> 1GB to even start. You can probably get it to run on less, but I haven't had much success. This leaves two options: look at <a href="http://lowendbox.com/" target="_blank">Low End Box</a> for a VPS with enough memory (as cheap as $5/month), of use <a href="https://www.openshift.com/" target="_blank">OpenShift</a>. Red Hat generously provides three "gears" to host applications, for free, and each with 1GB of memory. I have sort of a love-hate relationship with OpenShift, maybe a bit like using OAuth. Red Hat calls OpenShift the "Open Hybrid Cloud Application Platform", and I can attest that it is really this. They have provided a method to bundle an application stack and push it into production without needing to fuss about infrastructure, or even provisioning and management of the application. It feels like what would happen if Google App Engine and Amazon's EC2 had a child. Heroku or dotCloud might be its closest alternatives.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anyways, this isn't a review of OpenShift, although it would be a positive review, but instead on how to use OpenShift to host Splunk. I first installed Splunk in a gear using Nginx as a proxy, and it worked. However, this felt overly complex, and after one of <a href="https://twitter.com/aeriadesign" target="_blank">my colleagues</a> started working on installing Splunk in a cartridge, I eventually agreed this would be the way to go. The result was a Splunk cartridge that can be installed inside any existing gear. Here are the instructions; you need an OpenShift account, obviously. The install should take less than ten clicks of your mouse, and one copy/paste.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
From the <a href="https://github.com/kelvinn/openshift-splunk-cartridge" target="_blank">cartridge</a>'s GitHub README:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Create an Application based on existing web framework. If in doubt, just pick "Do-It-Yourself 0.1" or "Python 2.7"</li>
<li>Click on "Continue to the application overview page."</li>
<li>On the Application page, click on "Or, see the entire list of cartridges you can add".</li>
<li>Under "Install your own cartridge" enter the following URL: https://raw.github.com/kelvinn/openshift-splunk-cartridge/master/metadata/manifest.yml</li>
<li>Next and Add Cartrdige. Wait a few minutes for Splunk to download and install.</li>
<li>Logon to Splunk at: https://your-app.rhcloud.com/ui</li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
More details can be read on the cartridge's GitHub page, and I would especially direct you to the <a href="https://github.com/kelvinn/openshift-splunk-cartridge#limitations" target="_blank">limitations</a> of this configuration. This will all stop working if Splunk makes the installer file unavailable, but I will deal with that when the time comes. Feel free to alert me if this happens.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-83465167151948843462013-09-13T17:24:00.000+10:002013-09-13T17:24:14.099+10:00Finding The Same (Misspelled) Name Using Python/NLTKI have been meaning to play around with the <a href="http://nltk.org/">Natural Language Toolkit</a> for quite some time, but I had been waiting for a time when I could experiment with it and actually create some value (as opposed to just play with it). A suitable use case appeared this week: matching strings. In particular, matching two different lists of many, many thousands of names. <br />
<br />
To give you an example, let's say you had two lists of names, but with the name spelled incorrectly in one list:<br />
<br />
List 1: <br />
Leonard Hofstadter<br />
Sheldon Cooper<br />
Penny<br />
Howard Wolowitz<br />
Raj Koothrappali<br />
Leslie Winkle<br />
Bernadette Rostenkowski<br />
Amy Farrah Fowler<br />
Stuart Bloom<br />
Alex Jensen<br />
Barry Kripke<br />
<br />
List 2:<br />
Leonard Hofstadter<br />
Sheldon Coopers<br />
Howie Wolowits<br />
Rav Toothrapaly<br />
Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
Stu Broom<br />
Alexander Jensen<br />
<br />
This could easily occur if somebody was manually typing in the lists, dictating names over the phone, or spell their name differently (e.g. Phil vs. Phillip) at different times.<br />
<br />
If we wanted to match people on List 1 to List 2, how could we go about that? For a small list like this you can just look and see, but with many thousands of people, something more sophisticated would be useful. One tool could be NLTK's edit_distance function. The following Python script displays how easy this is:<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: python; light: true; ">import nltk
list_1 = ['Leonard Hofstadter', 'Sheldon Cooper', 'Penny', 'Howard Wolowitz', 'Raj Koothrappali', 'Leslie Winkle', 'Bernadette Rostenkowski', 'Amy Farrah Fowler', 'Stuart Bloom', 'Alex Jensen', 'Barry Kripke']
list_2 = ['Leonard Hofstadter', 'Sheldon Coopers', 'Howie Wolowits', 'Rav Toothrapaly', 'Ami Sarah Fowler', 'Stu Broom', 'Alexander Jensen']
for person_1 in list_1:
for person_2 in list_2:
print nltk.metrics.edit_distance(person_1, person_2), person_1, person_2
</pre>
<br />
0 Leonard Hofstadter Leonard Hofstadter<br />
15 Leonard Hofstadter Sheldon Coopers<br />
14 Leonard Hofstadter Howie Wolowits<br />
15 Leonard Hofstadter Rav Toothrapaly<br />
14 Leonard Hofstadter Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
16 Leonard Hofstadter Stu Broom<br />
15 Leonard Hofstadter Alexander Jensen<br />
14 Sheldon Cooper Leonard Hofstadter<br />
1 Sheldon Cooper Sheldon Coopers<br />
13 Sheldon Cooper Howie Wolowits<br />
13 Sheldon Cooper Rav Toothrapaly<br />
12 Sheldon Cooper Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
11 Sheldon Cooper Stu Broom<br />
12 Sheldon Cooper Alexander Jensen<br />
16 Penny Leonard Hofstadter<br />
13 Penny Sheldon Coopers<br />
13 Penny Howie Wolowits<br />
14 Penny Rav Toothrapaly<br />
16 Penny Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
9 Penny Stu Broom<br />
13 Penny Alexander Jensen<br />
11 Howard Wolowitz Leonard Hofstadter<br />
13 Howard Wolowitz Sheldon Coopers<br />
4 Howard Wolowitz Howie Wolowits<br />
15 Howard Wolowitz Rav Toothrapaly<br />
13 Howard Wolowitz Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
13 Howard Wolowitz Stu Broom<br />
14 Howard Wolowitz Alexander Jensen<br />
16 Raj Koothrappali Leonard Hofstadter<br />
14 Raj Koothrappali Sheldon Coopers<br />
16 Raj Koothrappali Howie Wolowits<br />
4 Raj Koothrappali Rav Toothrapaly<br />
14 Raj Koothrappali Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
14 Raj Koothrappali Stu Broom<br />
16 Raj Koothrappali Alexander Jensen<br />
14 Leslie Winkle Leonard Hofstadter<br />
13 Leslie Winkle Sheldon Coopers<br />
11 Leslie Winkle Howie Wolowits<br />
14 Leslie Winkle Rav Toothrapaly<br />
14 Leslie Winkle Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
12 Leslie Winkle Stu Broom<br />
12 Leslie Winkle Alexander Jensen<br />
17 Bernadette Rostenkowski Leonard Hofstadter<br />
18 Bernadette Rostenkowski Sheldon Coopers<br />
18 Bernadette Rostenkowski Howie Wolowits<br />
19 Bernadette Rostenkowski Rav Toothrapaly<br />
20 Bernadette Rostenkowski Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
20 Bernadette Rostenkowski Stu Broom<br />
17 Bernadette Rostenkowski Alexander Jensen<br />
15 Amy Farrah Fowler Leonard Hofstadter<br />
14 Amy Farrah Fowler Sheldon Coopers<br />
15 Amy Farrah Fowler Howie Wolowits<br />
14 Amy Farrah Fowler Rav Toothrapaly<br />
3 Amy Farrah Fowler Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
14 Amy Farrah Fowler Stu Broom<br />
13 Amy Farrah Fowler Alexander Jensen<br />
15 Stuart Bloom Leonard Hofstadter<br />
12 Stuart Bloom Sheldon Coopers<br />
12 Stuart Bloom Howie Wolowits<br />
14 Stuart Bloom Rav Toothrapaly<br />
13 Stuart Bloom Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
4 Stuart Bloom Stu Broom<br />
14 Stuart Bloom Alexander Jensen<br />
15 Alex Jensen Leonard Hofstadter<br />
12 Alex Jensen Sheldon Coopers<br />
13 Alex Jensen Howie Wolowits<br />
15 Alex Jensen Rav Toothrapaly<br />
13 Alex Jensen Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
10 Alex Jensen Stu Broom<br />
5 Alex Jensen Alexander Jensen<br />
15 Barry Kripke Leonard Hofstadter<br />
13 Barry Kripke Sheldon Coopers<br />
13 Barry Kripke Howie Wolowits<br />
12 Barry Kripke Rav Toothrapaly<br />
13 Barry Kripke Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
10 Barry Kripke Stu Broom<br />
14 Barry Kripke Alexander Jensen<br />
<br />
As you can see, this displays the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance">Levenstein distance</a> of the two sequences. Another option we have is to look at the ratio.<br />
<br />
<pre class="brush: python; light: true; ">len1 = len(list_1)
len2 = len(list_2)
lensum = len1 + len2
for person_1 in list_1:
for person_2 in list_2:
levdist = nltk.metrics.edit_distance(person_1, person_2)
nltkratio = (float(lensum) - float(levdist)) / float(lensum)
if nltkratio > 0.70:
print nltkratio, person_1, person_2
</pre>
<br />
1.0 Leonard Hofstadter Leonard Hofstadter<br />
0.944444444444 Sheldon Cooper Sheldon Coopers<br />
0.777777777778 Howard Wolowitz Howie Wolowits<br />
0.777777777778 Raj Koothrappali Rav Toothrapaly<br />
0.833333333333 Amy Farrah Fowler Ami Sarah Fowler<br />
0.777777777778 Stuart Bloom Stu Broom<br />
0.722222222222 Alex Jensen Alexander JensenUnknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-29591207088201028742013-09-08T10:45:00.001+10:002023-04-01T21:43:40.801+11:00Sydney's Education Levels MappedI was talking to a friend about what education levels might look like across Sydney, and a friend challenged me to map it. The below map is my first draft.<br />
<br />
The map was derived by combining three datasets from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (<a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/">ABS</a> - a department releasing some great datasets). The first dataset was the spatial data for "SA2" level boundaries, the second the population data for various geographic areas, and the third from the 2011 Census on Non-School Qualification Level of Education (e.g. Certificates, Diplomas, Masters, Doctorates). I aggregated all people with bachelors or higher in an SA2 region, and then divided that number by the total number of people in that region. A different methodology could have been used.<br />
<br />
<b>EDIT</b>: I should have paid more attention to mapping education levels. I mapped the percentage of overall population, but should have mapped the percentage of 25 to 34 year olds, as this would have aligned to various government metrics.<br />
<br />
Reported education levels differ vastly by region, e.g. "North Sydney - Lavender Bay" (40%) vs. "Bidwell - Hebersham - Emerton" (3%). It is interesting to look at the different <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2013/07/mapping-urban-density-in-sydney.html">urban density levels</a> of the areas, as well as the <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2013/08/sydney-commute-times-mapped-part-2.html">commute times to the nearest centre</a>.<br />
<br />
Without trying to sound too elitist, I was hoping to use this map to guide me where to consider buying our next property (i.e. looking for a well educated, clean area with decent schools and frequent public transport). It was interesting to discover that the SA2 region we currently live in has the second highest percentage in NSW.<br />
<br />
Feel free to take a <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ak3XfQfX87ELdEJRYVhIYlFRUGRZaDhQel9sbXlHY0E&output=html">look at the aggregated data</a> yourself or <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ak3XfQfX87ELdEJRYVhIYlFRUGRZaDhQel9sbXlHY0E&single=true&gid=0&output=csv">download it</a> (attribution to ABS for source datasets).<br />
<br />
<iframe height="600px" src="http://maps.kelvinism.com/sydney_educated.html" width="650px"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://maps.kelvinism.com/sydney_educated.html" target="_blank">View Full Screen</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-53918307540074596952013-08-05T07:55:00.000+10:002013-08-09T19:54:41.418+10:00Sydney Commute Times Mapped Part 2In <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2013/07/sydney-commute-times-mapped-part-1.html">Sydney Commute Times Mapped Part 1</a> I took a small step to a bigger goal of mashing together public transport in Sydney, and the <a href="http://strategies.planning.nsw.gov.au/Portals/0/Documents/MetroCommunityGuide.pdf">Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031</a>. The question I wanted to answer is this: how aligned is Sydney's public transport infrastructure and the Metropolitan Strategy's of a "city of cities"?<br />
<br />
I decided to find out.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the release of GTFS data by 131500 it is possible to visualise how long it takes via public transport to commute to the nearest "centre".<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FLxGCCi1WxI/Uf4jtzXPTtI/AAAAAAAALWo/lMoIqaJCcF4/s1600/CItyOfCities.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FLxGCCi1WxI/Uf4jtzXPTtI/AAAAAAAALWo/lMoIqaJCcF4/s1600/CItyOfCities.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cities and Corridors - <a href="http://strategies.planning.nsw.gov.au/Portals/0/Documents/MetroCommunityGuide.pdf" style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The Australian Bureau of Statistics collects data based on "mesh blocks", or roughly an area containing roughly 50 dwellings. Last week I had some fun <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2013/07/mapping-mesh-blocks-with-tilemill.html">mapping the mesh blocks</a>, as well as looking at Sydney's <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2013/07/mapping-urban-density-in-sydney.html">urban densities</a>. These mesh blocks are a good size to look at for calculating commute times.<br />
<br />
The simplified process I used was this, for the technical minded:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Calculate the centre of each mesh block</li>
<li>Calculate the commute time via public transport from each block to every "centre" (using 131500's GTFS and OpenTripPlanner's Analyst tool)</li>
<li>Import times in a database, calculate lowest commute time to each centre</li>
<li>Visualise in TileMill</li>
<li>Serve tiles in TileStache and visualise with Leaflet</li>
</ol>
<br />
The first map I created was simply to indicate how long it would take to the nearest centre. There appears to be rapidly poorer accessibility on the fringe of Sydney. I was also surprised of what appears to be a belt of higher times between Wetherill Park and all the way to Marrickville. There also appears to be poorer accessibility in <i>parts</i> of Western Sydney. It is worth noting that I offer not guarantee of the integrity of the data in these maps, and I have seen a few spots where the commute times increase significantly in adjacent mesh blocks. This tells me the street data (from OpenStreetMap) might not be connected correctly.<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe height="600px" src="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_city_cities.html" width="650px"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_city_cities.html" target="_blank">View Full Screen</a><br />
<br />
My next map shows what areas are within 30 minutes.<br />
<br />
<iframe height="600px" src="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_city_cities_2.html" width="650px"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_city_cities_2.html" target="_blank">View Full Screen</a><br />
<br />
These maps were both created using open data and open source tools, which I find quite neat. In that spirit, I have exported the database (probably a bit hard for most to work with) to a Shapefile. You can open this in TileMill and experiment, if you wish. Download it from <a href="http://cdn.kelvinism.com/mb_2011_nsw_transport.zip">here</a> (note: 250MB zip file):<br />
<br />
I have been interested in mapping traffic for a number of years, maybe ever since arriving in Sydney. It is sort of a hobby; I find making maps relaxing. My first little map was way back in 2008, where I <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2008/04/baby-steps-at-graphing-traffic_522.html">visualised speed</a> from a GPS unit. A little later I added <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2008/04/another-baby-step_1340.html">some colour to the visualisations</a>, and then used this as an excuse to create a little <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2008/05/gui-to-plot-driving-speed_6997.html">GUI for driving speed</a>. My interest in visualising individual vehicles has decreased recently, as it has now shifted to the mapping wider systems. Have an idea you would like to see mapped? Leave a note in the comments.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-66902213174388618742013-07-27T16:44:00.002+10:002013-07-27T16:44:50.480+10:00Quantified Self InterviewYS and I were recently interviewed about self-tracking and Quantified Self by one of the major news channels in Australia. I will reflect on the experience after the show has aired, but it was an overall great experience. We have a new respect for filming what may ultimately be just a two minute segment. Depending on how the editing is done it will either provoke the hosts to contemplate the value of a data-centric macroscopic view of the world, or give them lots of fodder.<br />
<br />That said, as you would expect, I had to track my heart rate during the interview - see below. My interpretation is that my heart rate jumped at the start of every questions, and went down as I answered the question. It also dropped when the interview finished. I wish I had a more expensive heart rate monitor (e.g. Zephyr BioHarness or Scanadu) that tracked skin temperature and breathing. My hands felt cold by the end.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2CBWKOeRTs4/UfNoUAHss8I/AAAAAAAALTA/C0h-8iHFWiE/s1600/HeartRateInterview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2CBWKOeRTs4/UfNoUAHss8I/AAAAAAAALTA/C0h-8iHFWiE/s1600/HeartRateInterview.png" /></a></div>
.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-63437270717861063982013-07-27T16:23:00.001+10:002013-07-27T16:25:06.738+10:00Coffee, Beer, Wine and Time of DayOne of the things I like Tableau, a piece of software to visualise data, is that it aggregates on dates really well. Below is a spread of beer / wine / coffee over 18 months, but grouped by what hour is fell in. You can see some trends, like I usually consume coffee in the morning, and that I usually drink after 17:00. There are exceptions, of course, like that beer I had at 10AM, and that coffee I had at 1AM.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/3vl06vRYnl" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AcVNMCB7Btw/UfNmbWpR6wI/AAAAAAAALSw/P32eCRbFXPo/s512/beerwinecoffee.png" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-15824261516444377192013-07-25T08:26:00.002+10:002023-04-01T21:44:26.467+11:00Some QS NumbersThere is the possibility I will be giving an interview on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantified_Self">Quantified Self</a> "movement". What follows is a brief summary of QS, the things I track, and some pretty charts.<br />
<br />
<b>What is Quantified Self</b><br />
<br />
I suppose it depends on who you talk to. Wikipedia states that it is "a movement to incorporate technology into data acquisition on aspects of a person's daily life in terms of inputs", but I side more on the idea that the movement is "a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in self knowledge through self-tracking." It is at this point that it is probably important to interject that most people are self-trackers: weight, height, reps at the gym, hours worked, and so forth. If you have ever made a goal, you probably tracked how you could reach it. What makes us QS folk a bit different is that we tend to track <i>lots</i> of things, correlate between them, and share our results. So, with this theme, let me share what I track.<br />
<br />
<b>What I Track, and How</b><br />
<br />
This is a list of some of the things I track, and the tools I use to do so.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Weight / Body Fat / Temperature / Measurements -> scales, callipers, ear thermometer</li>
<li>Resting Heart Rate -> oximeter</li>
<li>Drinks (wine, beer, coffee – and previously water) -> Android app (bespoke)</li>
<li>Drugs and vitamins -> Android app (bespoke)</li>
<li>Various conditions (headaches, “colds”, itchiness, nausea, sore throats, “the runs”) -> Android app (bespoke)</li>
<li>Finances (family) -> Android app (TOSHL)</li>
<li>Start/Stop times of work -> Excel…</li>
<li>Mood (Terrible to Great) -> Android app (How Are You Feeling)</li>
<li>Indoor air quality (not really QS) -> various sensors</li>
<li>Computer activity (Keystrokes / mouse clicks / mouse movement) -> WorkRave</li>
<li>Location -> Google Latitude</li>
<li>Steps & sleep -> Fitbit</li>
<li>Fitness --> Android app (Sports Tracker) and a Zephyr Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor</li>
<li>Health History -> Microsoft HealthVault</li>
<li>Photo every day -> Android app (PhotoChron)</li>
</ul>
<div>
You can see that this list seems <i>utterly normal</i>, but still gives me enough to work with to start forming a <a href="http://aether.com/themacroscope" target="_blank">macroscopic</a> view of life.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>A Few Charts</b></div>
<div>
<b><br />
</b></div>
<div>
I created these using Tableau, a fabulous piece of software for putting meaning behind numbers. These are not good examples of what the software is capable of, but it is the quickest way for me to visualise them.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I like coffee. It is, in all honesty, a drug. There have been times (I could probably find the date!) when I went from two cups a day to none, and I had withdrawals (headaches and nausea). I track the amount of coffee I consume to remind myself to not get into the habit of having two cups/day for too long. It is also bad for my stomach.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If I chart the days of the week I like to drink coffee over the last 18 months, it turns out I drink the most amount of coffee on <i>Saturday</i>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mTEkUs0PTB8/Ue-7OnAnhII/AAAAAAAALRU/5enpx2_tiz4/s1600/Coffees+Consumed.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mTEkUs0PTB8/Ue-7OnAnhII/AAAAAAAALRU/5enpx2_tiz4/s400/Coffees+Consumed.png" width="362" /></a></div>
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<div class="clear">
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I also enjoy an alcoholic drink from time to time, but was told in January to cut back (for my stomach's sake).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W2nOKq4mTWY/Ue-7O5b2HDI/AAAAAAAALRo/Et6HBu2Blz8/s1600/DrinksPerMonth.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W2nOKq4mTWY/Ue-7O5b2HDI/AAAAAAAALRo/Et6HBu2Blz8/s640/DrinksPerMonth.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<div class="clear">
</div>
I track both beer and wine consumption. I have managed to cut back on wine, but not so much on beer.<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gaMhmR9lLFs/Ue-7QzSMq1I/AAAAAAAALSQ/3YZ4ZUjToZc/s1600/WineVsBeer.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gaMhmR9lLFs/Ue-7QzSMq1I/AAAAAAAALSQ/3YZ4ZUjToZc/s400/WineVsBeer.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
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<div class="clear">
</div>
<br /></div>
This can be explained because I tend to have beer when I go out with work colleagues or friends, but wine at home. It appears to have been easier to stop drinking with dinner than when out.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For the last two years I have been wearing a <a href="http://www.fitbit.com/" target="_blank">FitBit</a>, usually, and using it to "track" my sleep.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zBfrCSSAQpY/Ue-7QKzgz0I/AAAAAAAALSA/41JEH4Rs5h4/s1600/StepsPerWeek.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zBfrCSSAQpY/Ue-7QKzgz0I/AAAAAAAALSA/41JEH4Rs5h4/s400/StepsPerWeek.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="clear">
</div>
It looks like I averaged about 7500 steps/day, yet started walking more in January of this year. Walking more was not a New Year's Resolution. In May I broke the clip to my FitBit, but a friend was kind enough to give me their's as a replacement. I should walk more.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I should also sleep more. It appears as though maybe, just maybe, I am starting to sleep more. My average is about 7.5hr/night. This is one area I would like to experiment more with.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BIfFBjv0e-4/Ue-7Ps7Pd0I/AAAAAAAALR8/s2mzbcz2ayw/s1600/MinutesAsleep.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BIfFBjv0e-4/Ue-7Ps7Pd0I/AAAAAAAALR8/s2mzbcz2ayw/s400/MinutesAsleep.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
I have also started tracking happiness on a simple Terrible -> Great! scale.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This graph shows my average happiness on a weekly basis for the last ~8 months. We could conclude that I'm getting more happy, and was really unhappy around Christmas.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uaI05Pq_SGA/Ue-7PDXssvI/AAAAAAAALRk/ubx34c6SJn8/s1600/HappinessLevels.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uaI05Pq_SGA/Ue-7PDXssvI/AAAAAAAALRk/ubx34c6SJn8/s400/HappinessLevels.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="clear">
</div>
<br />
And here we have my happiness levels when grouped by day of the week. We could conclude that I am, on average, the most content on a Sunday. I would like to believe it is just a coincidence that I am most content on a Sunday, and drink the least amount of coffee.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PJNHsN_Qjag/Ue-7PX2iolI/AAAAAAAALRs/qQeaNhmrC60/s1600/HappinessLevelsByWeekday.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="375" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PJNHsN_Qjag/Ue-7PX2iolI/AAAAAAAALRs/qQeaNhmrC60/s400/HappinessLevelsByWeekday.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This is the standard deviation of my happiness tracking on a monthly basis. It looks like I am also getting less moody.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oqJTHS6cp-o/Ue-7P6W5pBI/AAAAAAAALSE/gplW-pahzGM/s1600/StdDevHappiness.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="335" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oqJTHS6cp-o/Ue-7P6W5pBI/AAAAAAAALSE/gplW-pahzGM/s400/StdDevHappiness.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
And finally, weight. Nothing interesting here. I need to get back down to 77KG, which is a more natural weight for me. I use a normal scale so only record every few months - if I had a wi-fi scale, I would be able to record much more frequently. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_pLwY4-0HkY/Ue-7QrbYliI/AAAAAAAALSU/XcOJJmeqyks/s1600/Weight.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_pLwY4-0HkY/Ue-7QrbYliI/AAAAAAAALSU/XcOJJmeqyks/s640/Weight.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="clear">
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<div>
<b>Final Thoughts</b></div>
<div>
<br />
In the last ~18 months I have become more happy and less moody, with Sunday being my happiest day, and Monday and Wednesday being my least content. I have put on three KG. I drink the most amount of coffee on Saturday, the least amount on Sunday, and have been able to drink less wine, but keep drinking the same amount of beer.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
By looking at this evaluation I know I should probably start to incorporate a lunchtime walk into my daily routine, and stop drinking coffee on one day of the weekend. I should also drink my beer at a slower pace when I'm out, as this will prevent me from buying more than one, or, even harder to resist, friends and colleagues buying it for me.<br />
<br />
Finally: I know none of the charts have a title. Read the text.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-34973178260033294262013-07-21T10:06:00.002+10:002013-07-21T10:08:09.763+10:00Sydney Commute Times Mapped Part 1I quite like open data. I like data based on open standards (or mostly open standards) even better. Many transport operators around the world have started releasing their timetable data using (mostly) open standards, e.g. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Transit_Feed_Specification" target="_blank">GTFS</a>. One of the nice things about using a standard is that clever people have created tools to work with the timetable data, and those tools can now be used to manipulate timetable data from hundreds of agencies. The magnificent OpenTripPlanner is one such tool, and it works well with <a href="http://131500.info/" target="_blank">131500</a>'s GTFS data.<div><br />
</div><div>New South Wales Planning & Infrastructure have released a draft <a href="http://strategies.planning.nsw.gov.au/MetropolitanStrategyforSydney.aspx" target="_blank">plan</a> for how they hope to shape Sydney's growth, which is where they detail the idea of a "city of cities". I thought it would be interesting to mash these smaller "cities" with 131500's transport data, and then display a map with the shortest commute to the nearest city. Various cities, I believe including Melbourne, have goals of re-achieving a "20-minute" city, or something similar (i.e. X% of the population can reach X% of the city within X minutes).</div><div><br />
</div><div>This map is the first stage. It only displays the commute time to St Leonards from every Mesh Block in the greater Sydney area. I used the open source tool OpenTripPlanner to computer the commute times, with OpenStreetMaps to support walking distances. The next map I release will probably have all the regional cities, and a similar styled map depicting time to nearest "centre".</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
<iframe height="600px" src="http://maps.kelvinism.com/st_leonards_commute.html" width="650px"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://maps.kelvinism.com/st_leonards_commute.html" target="_blank">View Full Screen</a><br />
<br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-69574476370213770122013-07-20T02:00:00.000+10:002013-08-05T21:16:55.256+10:00Mapping Mesh Blocks with TileMillThis quick tutorial will detail how to prepair the ABS Mesh Blocks to be used with MapBox's TileMill. Beyond scope is how to install postgresql, postgis and TileMill. There is a lot of documentation how to do these tasks.<br />
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First, we create a database to import the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/1270.0.55.001July%202011?OpenDocument">shapefile</a> and <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/2074.02011?OpenDocument">population data</a> into:<br />
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Using 'psql' or 'SQL Query', create a new database:<br />
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<pre>CREATE DATABASE transport WITH TEMPLATE postgis20 OWNER postgres;
# Query returned successfully with no result in 5527 ms.</pre>
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It is necessary to first import the Mesh Block spatial file using something like PostGIS Loader.<br />
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<img height="603" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XVcKYHJLj8c/UeqHCDEpIdI/AAAAAAAALOc/BRpYiuhzFO0/s640/PostGISLoader2.png" width="640" /><br />
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We then create a table to import the Mesh Block population data:<br />
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<pre>CREATE TABLE tmp_x (id character varying(11), Dwellings numeric, Persons_Usually_Resident numeric);</pre>
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And then load the data:<br />
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<pre>COPY tmp_x FROM '/home/kelvinn/censuscounts_mb_2011_aust_good.csv' DELIMITERS ',' CSV HEADER;</pre>
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It is possible to import the GIS information and view it in QGIS:<br />
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<img height="448" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-T4bauKFiPaQ/UeqHQJh-_kI/AAAAAAAALO8/2bKzyjU0FWs/s640/qgis.png" width="640" /><br />
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Now that we know the shapefile was imported correctly we can merge the population with spatial data. The following query is used to merge the datasets:<br />
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<pre>UPDATE mb_2011_nsw
SET dwellings = tmp_x.dwellings FROM tmp_x
WHERE mb_2011_nsw.mb_code11 = tmp_x.id;</pre>
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<pre>UPDATE mb_2011_nsw
SET pop = tmp_x.persons_usually_resident FROM tmp_x
WHERE mb_2011_nsw.mb_code11 = tmp_x.id;</pre>
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We can do a rough validation by using this query:<br />
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<pre>SELECT sum(pop) FROM mb_2011_nsw;</pre>
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And we get 6916971, which is about right (ABS has the 2011 official NSW population of 7.21 million).<br />
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Finally, using TileMill, we can connect to the PostgGIS database and apply some themes to the map.<br />
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<pre>host=127.0.0.1 user=MyUsername password=MyPassword dbname=transport
(SELECT * from mb_2011_nsw JOIN westmead_health on mb_2011_nsw.mb_code11 = westmead_health.label) as mb
</pre>
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<img height="386" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M2Rc8hloRNA/UeqHTsoQQkI/AAAAAAAALPE/NYDUnDj1jpY/s640/tilemill_1.png" width="640" /><br />
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<img height="530" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2bzu9wvdglI/UeqHU26Au4I/AAAAAAAALPM/BjXVdSdnPNE/s640/tilemill_2.png" width="640" /><br />
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After generating the MBTiles file I pushed it to my little $15/year VPS and used <a href="http://tilestache.org/">TileStache</a> to serve the tiles and UTFGrids. The TileStache configuration I am using looks something like this:<br />
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<pre>{
"cache": {
"class": "TileStache.Goodies.Caches.LimitedDisk.Cache",
"kwargs": {
"path": "/tmp/limited-cache",
"limit": 16777216
}
},
"layers":
{
"NSWUrbanDensity":
{
"provider": {
"name": "mbtiles",
"tileset": "/home/user/mbtiles/NSWUrbanDensity.mbtiles"
}
},
"NSWPopDensity":
{
"provider": {
"name": "mbtiles",
"tileset": "/home/user/mbtiles/NSWPopDensity.mbtiles"
}
}
}
}
</pre>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3439832858234004835.post-19285739322604521602013-07-20T00:34:00.001+10:002013-07-21T10:30:25.392+10:00Mapping Urban Density in SydneyFive years ago I started exploring different mapping technologies by detailing instructions on <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2008/04/setting-up-mapnik-server-on-ubuntu_118.html">installing Mapnik</a> and <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2008/11/revised-modtile-install-howto_1369.html">mod_tile</a>. Times have changed significantly in the last five years, and thanks a lot to the products offered by <a href="http://www.mapbox.com/" target="_blank">MapBox</a>. After playing with TileMill, MBTiles, Leaflet and UTFGrids, it is great how many annoyances have been fixed by MapBox. I find it enjoyable making maps now, as I no longer need to worry about patching code just to get it to run, or mucking about with oddities in web browser.<br />
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Each night this week I have created a new map using Mesh Block spatial data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Mesh Blocks are the smallest area used when conducting surveys). I am thankful to live in a country that provides a certain amount of open data, and the ABS should be applauded for the amount of data they provide. They provide <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/1270.0.55.001July%202011?OpenDocument" target="_blank">spatial data</a> about Mesh Blocks, as well as <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/2074.02011?OpenDocument" target="_blank">population counts</a> for this spatial data. It is relatively easy to merge the two and then visualise them using TileMill.<br />
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First up - population density of Sydney, i.e. persons reported to be living in each mesh block. Darker red indicates a higher population count.<br />
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<iframe height="500px" src="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_pop_density.html" width="650px"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_pop_density.html" target="_blank">View Full Screen</a><br />
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I find it interesting to see how many people live in certain Mesh Blocks. You will notice that Mesh Blocks with high population levels tend to be nearer public transport - either major roads with frequent bus service, or train stations.<br />
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We can look at the urban densities by determining dwellings per hectare, and do this per Mesh Block. The definition I used for urban densities comes from <a href="http://annforsyth.net/" target="_blank">Ann Forsyth</a> in "Measuring Density: Working Definitions for Residential Density and Building Intensity" (<a href="http://www.corridordevelopment.org/pdfs/from_MDC_Website/db9.pdf" target="_blank">pdf</a>). Ann discusses the need to consider net or gross densities, depending on the type of land use. At the Mesh Block level the land use type appears to be singular: Industrial, Parkland, Commercial, Residential, and Transport. Because the land use type was generally singular I have not adjusted to gross/net, but still used Ann's definitions of certain density bands:<br />
<ul><li>Very low density: 11 dw/ha</li>
<li>Low density: 11-22 dw/ha</li>
<li>Medium density: 23-45 dw/ha</li>
<li>High density: 45 dw/ha</li>
</ul>"dw/ha" is dwellings per hectare. I decided to map the four density levels, which can be relatively easily achieved using TileMill. See below for an example.<br />
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<iframe height="600px" src="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_urban_density.html" width="650px"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://maps.kelvinism.com/syd_urban_density.html" target="_blank">View Full Screen</a><br />
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<p>You can zoom in and scroll over any Mesh Block in Sydney to find out more. Additional installation information on how I did this can be found on this special page: <a href="http://www.kelvinism.com/2013/07/mapping-mesh-blocks-with-tilemill.html">Mapping Mesh Block Data</a>.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comSydney NSW, Australia-33.8674869 151.20699020000006-34.711976400000005 149.91609670000005 -33.0229974 152.49788370000007